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r.uK'.ave.l  l.y  W.  T.  I-'ry  Panned  by  himself.  1793 

BENJAMIN  West 


BENJAMIN  WEST 
HIS  LIFE  AND  WORK 


H  flUonoGtapb 

BY 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON 


With  a  Letter  by 

HENRY  VAN  DYKE 


TWELVE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Philadelphia 


THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  CO. 
1900 


Copyright,  igoo 
By  henry  E.  JACKSON 


iNTED  BY  Request  of  the  West  Memorial  Committee  fo 
THE  Purpose  of  Raising  Funds  to  Erect  a  Monument 
to  the  Memory  of  West  in  Svvarthmore,  Pa., 
HIS  Birthplace 


Pf^lNCETOri  UNIVERSITY 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Swarth- 
more,  Pennsylvania,  it  was  proposed  to  erect  a 
monument  to  the  memory  of  Benjamin  West, 
the  Father  of  American  Art,  who  was  horn  in 
the  quaint  old  house  standing  on  the  campus  of 
Swarthmore  College  and  recently  marked  with  a 
tablet  by  the  Delaware  County  Historical  Society. 
The  following  Committee  was  appointed  to  carry 
out  the  plans  of  the  meeting:  Rev.  Henry  E. 
Jackson,  Chairman;  Frederick  M.  Simons,  Treas- 
urer; George  A.  Marr,  Secretary ;  Miss  Beatrice 
Magill,  Chairman  of  the  Art  Committee;  W.  H. 
Gutelius,  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee ; 
Prof.  A.  H.  Tomlinson,  Chairman  of  the  Con- 
struction Committee;  Mrs.  L.  H.  Bigelow,  Mrs. 
IV.  IV.  Birdsall,  Mrs.  C.  H.  Bedell,  Dr.  Edward 
H.  Magill,  formerly  President  of  Swarthmore 
College,  J.  W.  Campion,  Otto  S.  Kolle,  Francis 
C.  Pyle,  Susan  J.  Cunningham  and  James 
Monaghan. 


Prefatory  [hQote 


Mr.  Jackson  has  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Committee  the  manuscript  of  a  biographical  study 
of  the  life  and  a  critical  review  of  the  work  of 
Benjamin  West,  which  will  be  published  as  a 
memorial  volume.  The  Committee  considers  it- 
self fortunate  in  thus  being  able  to  give,  in  the 
brief  form  now  so  much  in  demand  and  at  small 
cost,  a  complete  and  fully  illustrated  biography 
of  Benjamin  West,  furnishing  in  detail  all  the 
varied  and  romantic  incidents  of  his  life  and 
reviezving  his  career  as  an  artist  in  a  popular 
and  scholarly  manner. 

S.  G.  W.  Benjamin,  the  art  critic,  in  his  ''Art 
in  America,"  characterises  West  as  "one  of  the 
greatest  men  our  country  has  produced. ' '  Judged 
by  the  standards  of  his  time,  he  did  important 
service  to  the  cause  of  art.  ''It  unquestionably 
implied  daring  and  consciousness  of  power,"  says 
Benjamin,  "to  brave  the  opposition  of  contempor- 
ary opinion  and  abandon  classic  costume  in  his- 
torical compositions  as  he  did,  to  win  to  his  side 
the  judgment  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and  create 
a  revolution  in  certain  phases  of  art. ' ' 

Not  only  as  artist  but  also  as  philanthropist. 
West  deserves  to  be  remembered,  for  thousands 


■  Prefatory  U^ote 

of  patients  at  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  beyond 
doubt,  owe  their  lives  to  the  endowment  fund 
from  his  picture  "Christ  Healing  the  Sick"  pre- 
sented by  him  to  that  institution. 

Who  can  read  the  story  of  his  life,  from 
Quaker  country  lad  to  Court  painter  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Academy,  without  a  fresh  in- 
centive to  labor!  How  can  we  better  keep  alive 
his  inspiring  memory  than  by  pen,  pencil  and 
memorial  shaft! 

Mr.  Brice,  author  of  ''The  American  Com- 
monwealth," has  pointed  out  that  the  Swiss,  a 
peculiarly  unimaginative  people,  by  familiarity 
with  their  own  annals,  by  national  songs,  by  the 
celebration  of  anniversaries,  by  the  statues  of 
departed  heroes,  by  the  preservation  of  ancient 
buildings,  by  historical  and  antiquarian  mu- 
seums, have  not  only  become  penetrated  and  per- 
vaded by  patriotism,  but  have  learned  to  carry 
its  spirit  into  the  workings  of  their  institutions. 

Nothing  permanent  has  ever  been  done  in 
America  to  honor  West's  memory.  The  Com- 
mittee, desiring  to  make  the  memorial  worthy 
of  the  subject,  has  consulted  Frederick  Mac- 


Prefatory  Cf^ote 


Monnies — maker  of  the  MacMonnies  fountain  at 
the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  the  statue  of 
l^athafi  Hale  in  City  Hall  Park,  New  York,  the 
statue  of  Shakespeare  in  the  Congressional 
Library  at  Washington,  and  other  notable  works 
of  art—who  is  a  descendant  of  West,  and  he 
offers  to  furnish  a  design  for  the  monument, 
{which  the  Committee  hopes  to  be  able  to  accept) 
and  promises  a  generous  contribution  towards 
its  erection. 

The  Committee  appeals  to  all  who  wish  to 
cherish  the  great  memories  of  the  past  to  aid  in 
erecting  this  memorial. 

The  Committee. 


THE  FOREWORD. 


MR.  Holman  Hunt,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Frederic 
W.  Farrar,  once  said,  "  It  has  always  '  increas- 
ingly witii  my  experience '  seemed  both  surprising  and 
unfortunate  that  men  of  culture,  who  are  without  pre- 
tense to  knowledge  of  the  technical  qualities  of  art,  do 
not  often  enough  express  their  feeling  about  the  works 
which  sculptors  and  painters  and,  indeed,  architects  do. 
England  of  late  years  particularly  has  suffered  from 
want  of  large,  independent  expression  of  feeling  on  art." 

It  is  in  the  spirit  of  this  letter  that  the  following 
monograph  is  written,  and  the  writer  asks  the  reader 
kindly  to  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  as  a  layman  without 
any  knowledge  of  the  technic  of  art,  that  he  writes. 

All  available  sources,  which  are  exceedingly  meagre, 
have  been  drawn  upon  that  the  leading  facts  of  West's 
life  might  be  brought  within  a  small  compass  and  a 
brief  popular  estimate  of  his  work  be  given. 

The  monograph  was  originally  prepared  as  a  lecture, 
with  no  thought  of  publication,  and  delivered  to  the 
citizens  of  Swarthmore  that  they  might  be  helped  to 
give  to  their  at-one-time  townsman  his  "guerdon  and 
glory,"  and  keep  green  the  memory  we  ought  not  wil- 
lingly let  die. 

Browning,  in  his  poem  "Old  Pictures  in  Florence," 
expresses  the  sarne  feeling  for  the  pioneers  of  Italian 
art,  which  we  ought  to  have  for  the  pioneers  of  English 
art,  among  whom  West  held  no  mean  place. 

"  But  at  any  rate  I  have  loved  the  season 
Of  art's  spring-birth  so  dim  and  dewy 
My  sculptor  is  Nicolo,  the  Pisan 
My  painter — who  but  Cimabue." 

Swarthmore,  Pa.,  Dec.  /,  igoo.  H.  E.  J. 


ENTLEMEN :  It  is  a  great  treasure  and  a  great  trust 


which  is  put  into  our  hands.  The  fine  arts  were 
late  before  they  crossed  the  British  Channel,  but  now 
we  may  fairly  pronounce  that  they  have  made  their 
especial  abode  with  us.  There  is  nothing  in  this  climate 
unpropitious  to  their  growth  ;  and  if  the  idea  has  been 
conceived  in  the  world,  enough  has  been  done  by  the 
artists  of  Great  Britain  to  disprove  it.  I  know  that  1  am 
speaking  to  the  first  professional  characters  in  Europe 
in  every  branch  of  elegant  art,  as  well  as  those  who 
are  most  distinguished  in  taste  and  judgment.  If  there 
be  diffused  through  this  country  a  spirit  of  encourage- 
ment equal  to  the  abilities  which  are  ripe  to  meet  it,  I 
may  venture  to  predict  that  the  sun  of  our  arts  will 
have  a  long  and  glorious  career." 


Benjamin  West. 


Taken  from  the  first  discourse 
to  the  Students  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  December  lo,  1792. 


CONTENTS. 

I. 

The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America  .... 

13 

II. 

West's  Early  Ivife  in  his  Wilderness  Home 

20 

III. 

West  Chooses  Painting  as  a  Vocation  .  . 

27 

IV. 

West's  Ivove  Romance  and  his  Ivife  in  Italy 

35 

V. 

West  in  England.  His  Relation  to  America 

50 

VI. 

65 

VII. 

His  Religious  Pictures  

72 

VIII. 

His  Lesser  Historical  Scenes  

84 

IX. 

His  Greater  Historical  Scenes  

93 

X. 

Mrs.  Browning's  Defence  of  Benjamin  West  io8 

HE  greatest  misfortune  that  can  happen  to  any 


^  people  is  to  have  no  noble  deeds  and  no  heroic 
personalities  to  look  back  to,  for  as  a  wise  present  is  the 
seed  of  a  fruitful  future,  so  a  great  past  is  the  seed  of  a 
hopeful  present.  It  is  in  this  respect  with  peoples  as  it 
is  with  families— nothing  stands  in  the  world  uncon- 
nected with  the  past  or  unproductive  of  the  future.  And 
as  certainly  as  it  requires  a  peculiar  virtue  in  the  child  to 
resist  the  evil  influence  of  a  worthless  parentage,  so 
certainly  will  that  people  require  a  double  grace  from 
heaven  in  respect  to  future  achievement,  which  starts 
with  no  elevating  memories  from  the  past.  But  there 
is  a  greater  misfortune  than  this,  and  not  merely  a 
misfortune,  but  a  crime,  viz.:  to  have  had  noble  ances- 
tors and  to  forget  them." 


JOHN  STUART  BLACKIE. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


I.    Portrait  of  West  (Frontispiece)  IVest 

II.    Portrait  of  West  Lawrence 

III.  House  in  which  West  was  Born  .  

IV.  West's  First  Effort  in  Art"  Ward 

V.    Portrait  of  West's  Family  West 

VI.    "  Christ  Healing  the  Sick  "  West 

VII.    "Kinglvear"  West 

VIII.    "  Christ  Rejected  "  West 

IX.  "  Alexander  and  his  Physician  "  ....  West 

X.    "  Death  of  General  Wolfe  "  West 

XI.  "  Penn's  Treaty  with  the  Indians"  .  .  .West 

XII.    *  *  Cimabue's  Madonna  "  Leighton 


Engraved  by  Charles  Rolls 


Sir  Thomas  Lawrence 

Benjamin  West 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FINE  ART 
IN  AMERICA. 


"Great  nations  write  their  autobiographies  in  three 
manuscripts  :  the  book  of  their  deeds,  the  book  of  their 
words,  and  the  book  of  their  art.  Not  one  of  these  books 
can  be  understood  unless  we  read  the  two  others,  but  of 
the  three,  the  only  quite  trustworthy  one  is  the  last."— 
RUSKIN. 


MONG  the  original  thirteen  colonies  of  the 


new  world,  Pennsylvania  had  the  honor 
of  being  the  pioneer  in  many  departments.  It 
was  here  that  Bartram  founded  the  first  botanic 
garden  in  America.  It  was  here  that  Frank- 
lin founded  the  first  American  Philosophical 
Institution,  and  assisted  in  founding  the  first 
public  library  in  America.  Here  were  founded 
America's  first  medical  and  law  schools.  Here 
was  set  up  the  first  book  printing  press  on  this 
side  the  Atlantic  and  previous  to  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  more  books  were  published  in 
Pennsylvania  than  in  all  the  other  colonies 
combined. 


14       The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America 

This  remarkable  activity  along  educational 
and  philanthropic  lines  was  due  indirectly  to 
the  Quaker  rule.  Because  under  the  mild 
government  of  the  Friends,  Pennsylvania  be- 
came a  refuge  for  the  persecuted  and  a  home 
for  men  of  science  and  scholarship.  Dr. 
Priestley,  the  father  of  modern  chemistry  was 
among  those  who  came  to  this  free  atmosphere. 
And  when  Congress  wanted  to  have  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  translated  into  seven 
European  languages,  Peter  Miller,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, was  found  to  be  the  man  learned 
enough  to  perform  the  task.  It  is  not  hard, 
therefore,  to  understand  why  Penn's  colony 
should  be  thus  prominent  in  the  arts  of  peace. 
The  atmosphere  of  the  Friends,  congenial  as 
it  was  to  such  work  and  studies,  is  a  sufficient 
explanation  of  this  activity. 

But  it  is  a  matter  of  some  surprise  that  not 
only  Pennsylvania,  but  the  Society  of  Friends 
itself  should  have  been  the  home  of  the  first 
great  American  painter,  Benjamin  West.  For 
it  was  one  of  the  prominent  doctrines  among 
the  Friends,  "That  things  merely  ornamental 


The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  A7ne7dca  15 

were  not  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  man, 
but  rather  superfluous,"  and  among  those 
merely  ornamental  and  superfluous  things,  was 
the  art  of  painting.  Hence  until  West  was 
six  years  old  he  never  saw  a  painting  or  an 
engraving.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  West's 
religious  environment  was  the  least  calculated 
to  account  for  his  choice  of  a  profession. 

Nor  could  the  natural  scenery  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, wild  and  beautiful  as  it  was,  do  much 
by  way  of  producing  an  artist.  For  while 
beautiful  scenery  speaks  a  divine  language  to 
a  cultivated  mind,  it  is  only  to  a  mind  already 
cultivated  that  she  thus  speaks.  Of  herself, 
nature  can  never  produce  poetic  feelings  or 
create  an  imagination.  It  is  a  noteworthy 
fact,  as  Gait  remarks,  that  of  all  the  nations 
of  Europe  the  Swiss  are  the  least  poetical  and 
yet  the  scenery  of  no  other  country  seems  so 
well  calculated  as  that  of  Switzerland  to 
awaken  the  imagination.  On  the  other  hand, 
Shakespeare  grew  up  in  one  of  the  least  pictur- 
esque districts  of  England  and  yet  in  him  the 
imagination  reached  its  highest  development. 


1 6       The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America 

The  fact  is,  if  you  seek  an  explanation  of 
the  advent  of  any  great  man,  you  may  find 
it  partly  but  never  wholly  in  his  natural 
human  environment.  After  giving  due  weight 
to  his  natural  surroundings  and  to  the  intel- 
lectual forces  at  work  around  him,  we  must 
always  fall  back  for  an  explanation  on  what 
we  cannot  define  more  definitely  than  by  say- 
ing, "It  is  his  personality,"  a  strange,  subtle 
endowment,  which  we  cannot  grasp  or  explain, 
but  which  itself  explains  most  of  all,  any  man's 
work  or  influence.  Each  man's  God-given 
personality  is  the  only  creative  power  in  this 
world.  All  great  men  like  poets  are  born  not 
.made.  He  will  achieve  greatness  either  with 
the  help  of,  or  in  spite  of  his  surroundings. 
Benjamin  West  became  the  first  great  Amer- 
ican painter,  not  because  of  his  wilderness 
home,  far  away  from  the  centers  ot  art  and 
culture,  or  of  his  Quaker  training,  but  in  spite 
of  them.  John  Gait,  West's  personal  friend 
and  biographer,  was  right  when  he  sought  no 
explanation  of  West's  genius  outside  of  West 
himself. 


The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America  17 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  West's  portrait  is 
one  of  the  best  commentaries  on  his  life  and 
work,  as  Carlyle  thought  was  the  case  with 
Giotto's  wonderful  portrait  of  Dante.  Not 
only  so,  but  the  portrait  of  West  to  be  selec- 
ted, is  not  the  portrait  by  Lawrence,  West's 
successor  in  the  presidency  of  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy, now  in  the  National  Gallery,  London, 
and  in  the  Wads  worth  Gallery  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut.    Lawrence  has  dressed  West  in 
the  gown  he  wore  in  his  studio,  and  represents 
him  in  the  act  of  lecturing  to  students.  He 
was  lecturing  on  the  theory  of  color,  hence 
the  presence  of  the  rainbow  by  which  he  illus- 
trated his  subject.    He  has  introduced  part  of 
the  cartoon  of  his  ' '  Death  of  Ananias. ' '  Law- 
rence was  employed  to  paint  the  portrait  by 
friends  of  West  in  New  York.    Nor  is  the 
likeness  to  be  selected  the  bust  of  West  by  Sir 
Francis  Chan  trey,  now  in  the  National  Gallery, 
London,  but  the  portrait  of  West  painted  by 
himself,  a  cut  of  which  is  here  given.  West 
makes  himself  a  handsomer  man  than  Law- 
rence represents  him  to  be;   not  that  West 


1 8       The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America 

consciously  made  a  flattered  likeness  of  him- 
self. Like  every  other  artist  he  was  fond  of 
painting  his  own  portrait.  In  Florence  there 
is  a  gallery  with  hundreds  of  portraits  of  artists, 
painted  by  themselves,  and  the  same  thing  is 
true  of  each  of  these,  that  is  true  of  West's.  In 
each  case  there  is  an  expression,  a  loftiness  of 
character  in  the  portrait  that  other  people  did 
not  see  in  the  man.  The  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  painter  has  painted 
it  from  within,  not  from  without.  He  has 
painted  it  from  his  heart  knowledge,  rather 
than  from  the  knowledge  he  acquired  by  look- 
ing in  a  mirror.  The  result  is,  we  have  not  so 
good  a  physical  likeness,  but  a  better  portrait 
of  the  man's  character.  The  record  of  West's 
life  and  work  is  written  on  his  own  portrait 
and  with  it  corresponds. 

In  West,  fine  art  in  America  had  its  birth, 
but  he  became  the  first  great  American  painter 
almost  wholly  through  his  own  genius.  "Pain- 
ters are  but  the  hands,  and  poets  but  the  voices, 
whereby  peoples  express  their  accumulated 
thoughts  and  permanent  emotions."  West's 


The  Birth  of  Fine  Art  in  America  19 

were  among  the  first  hands,  whose  cunning 
depended  on  his  own  skill,  which  sought  to 
express  ' '  the  accumulated  thoughts  and  per- 
manent emotions,"  not  only  of  the  peoples  in 
the  new  world,  but  of  all  peoples  who  spoke 
the  English  tongue. 


II. 


WEST'S  KARLY  UFE  IN  HIS 
WII.DERNESS  HOME 

"The  longer  I  live  the  more  certain  I  am  that  the 
great  difference  between  men,  the  feeble  and  the  power- 
ful, the  great  and  the  insignificant,  is  energy  and 
invincible  determination — a  purpose  once  fixed  and  then 
death  or  victory.  That  quality  will  do  anything  that 
can  be  done  in  this  world,  and  no  talents,  no  circumstan- 
ces, no  opportunities  will  make  a  two-legged  creature  a 
man  without  it,"— SIR  T.  Fowell  Buxton. 

BENJAMIN  West  was  born  October  lo,  1738, 
one  hundred  and  sixty- two  years  ago. 
It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  the  first  six 
leading  American  painters  came  in  pairs.  Cop- 
ley and  West  were  born  in  1737  and  1738; 
Stewart  and  Trumbull  in  1756;  Vanderlyn 
in  1776  and  Alston  three  years  later.  This  is 
only  a  minor  illustration  of  the  fact,  often 
remarked,  that  the  great  men  in  the  world's 
history  have  usually  come  in  spots. 

West  was  born  in  what  is  now  the  town  of 
Swarthmore,  Springfield  Township,  Pennsyl- 


Early  Life  in  His  Wilderness  Home  21 

vania.  Gait  says  he  was  born  in  the  ' '  town  of 
Springfield."  In  the  early  days  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  it  is  still  a  custom  in  New  England, 
the  town  included  the  country  side  together 
with  two  or  three  or  more  villages.  It  was 
synonymous  with  the  modern  county.  In 
Pennsylvania  the  county  has  taken  the  place 
of  the  town,  and  the  town  has  been  narrowed 
down  to  the  limits  of  the  village.  This  ex- 
plains Gait's  remark. 

West  was  born  in  a  house — a  cut  of  which 
is  here  given — which  dates  back  to  1724, 
almost  to  the  time  when  the  first  Friends  landed 
in  Pennsylvania.  In  1873  a  fire  broke  out  in  the 
house  which  destroyed  the  interior,  together 
with  some  specimens  of  West's  boyish  art  on 
the  walls.  The  stone  walls  were  left  uninjured, 
and  the  house  was  restored  by  Swarthmore 
College,  to  which  the  property  now  belongs. 
In  1898  a  granite  slab  was  placed  in  the  south- 
ern wall  of  the  house,  near  the  window  of  the 
room  in  which  West  was  born.  It  bears  the 
following  inscription  : 


22      Early  Life  in  His  Wilde7mess  Home 


Benjamin  West,  P.R.A. 
Was  born  in  this  house 
8th  month,  loth,  1738. 
Placed  by  the  Delaware  Co. ,  Historical  Society, 
1898. 

The  tablet  was  unveiled  with  appropriate 
ceremonies,  among  which  was  a  poem  written 
and  read  by  Professor  J.  Russell  Hayes.  The 
poem  breathes  the  spirit  with  which  we  should 
cherish  our  famous  landmarks  : 

"And  Thee,  Old  House,  that  slumberest  serenely, 
We  cherish  as  the  painter's  boyhood  home 
With  tender  care,  yon  college,  young  and  queenly, 
Doth  shadow  Thee  with  her  protecting  dome. 

In  academic  shades 

The  artist's  fame  shall  last. 

Here  glory  never  fades 

Nor  reverence  for  the  Past." 

The  first  romance  of  West's  life  was  in  con- 
nection with  his  birth.  For  this  old  house 
narrowly  escaped  the  honor  which  his  birth 
conferred  upon  it.  Edmund  Peckover,  a  cele- 
brated Quaker  orator,  was  preaching  in  the 
meeting  house,  erected  by  Mrs.  West's 'father, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of  the  house. 
Mrs.  West  was  already  the  mother  of  nine 
children  and  was  about  to  become  the  mother 


Early  Life  in  His  Wilderness  Home  23 

of  Benjamin.  She  was  present  at  the  meeting. 
The  orator  was  so  vehement  in  his  denuncia- 
tions of  European  life  and  its  mercenary  spirit 
and  so  eloquent  in  his  praises  of  the  new  life 
in  America,  that  Mrs.  West  became  nervous 
and  was  taken  sick.  The  meeting  was  broken 
up.  The  women  surrounded  Mrs.  West  and 
carried  her  home  where  Benjamin  was  prema- 
turely born.  The  orator  and  friends  of  the 
family  predicted  that  a  child  who  came  into 
the  world  in  so  wonderful  a  manner  was  des- 
tined to  have  a  brilliant  future.  Whatever  we 
may  think  of  the  basis  of  this  prophecy,  certain 
it  is  that  West's  future  career  was  attended  at 
every  step  with  romance. 

West's  immediate  ancestors  accompanied 
William  Penn  to  this  country.  His  maternal 
grandfather  was  allowed  by  Penn  to  name  the 
City  of  Chester  in  honor  of  his  old  home  in 
Kngland.  In  the  atmosphere  which  the  earn- 
est, sincere,  simple  and  kindly  men  of  Penn's 
colony  brought  with  them  to  Penn's  forest. 
West  grew  up.  It  was  an  atmosphere  of  hos- 
pitality.     In  these  primitive  days,  "when 


24     Early  Life  in  His  Wilderness  Home 

hunger  made  acorns  savory  and  thirst  made 
every  streamlet  nectar,"  it  was  the  custom 
among  those  who  lived  on  the  highways,  after 
supper  and  the  last  religious  exercises  of  the 
evening,  to  make  a  large  fire  in  the  hall  and 
to  set  a  table  with  refreshments  for  such  trav- 
elers who  might  pass  during  the  night.  When 
the  family  came  down  in  the  morning  they 
seldom  found  that  the  table  had  not  been 
visited.  Such  was  the  custom  at  Springfield, 
and,  with  this  spirit  in  the  home,  it  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  understand  how  young  West  was  on 
terms  of  friendliness  with  the  Indians.  It  is 
beautiful  to  notice  that  the  Indians  taught  him 
how  to  prepare  the  red  and  yellow  colors  with 
which  they  painted  themselves  and  their  orna- 
ments. To  these  his  mother  added  blue  from 
her  indigo  and  thus  he  came  into  possession 
of  the  three  primary  colors,  red,  blue  and 
yellow.  He  manufactured  green  by  mixing 
the  yellow  with  the  blue.  The  Indians  also 
taught  him  to  be  an  expert  archer,  so  that  he 
could  shoot  birds  for  models. 


Early  Life  in  His  Wilderness  Home      2 5 

In  connection  with  West's  early  equipment 
as  a  painter,  the  part  which  the  family  cat 
played  in  his  art  ought  not  to  be  passed  by  in 
silence.  The  strange  antipathy  to  cats,  which 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  describes  in  his  "Elsie 
Venner,"  and  which  many  persons  have,  did 
not  belong  to  young  West.  The  neighbors, 
who  were  interested  in  the  child's  drawings, 
regretted  that  he  had  no  pencils  with  which 
to  work.  He  asked  what  they  were  and  was 
told  that  they  were  small  brushes  made  ot 
camel's  hair  and  fastened  in  a  quill .  Since  there 
were  no  camels  in  America,  West  could  think 
of  no  substitute  until  it  occurred  to  him  that 
his  father's  favorite  black  cat  "Grimalkin," 
would  answer  for 'a  camel.  He  immediately 
carried  his  idea  into  execution,  cut  the  hair 
from  the  end  of  her  tail  and  made  his  first 
brush.  As  his  need  increased  he  supplied  it 
from  the  cat's  back,  and  in  proportion  as  his 
need  increased,  the  cat  presented  a  sorry  sight. 
The  father  noticed  the  cat's  altered  appearance 
and  lamented  the  disease  that  produced  it. 
The  guilty  and  penitent  Benjamin  at  last  con- 


26     Early  Life  in  His  Wilderness  Home 

fessed  the  true  cause  of  "  Grimalkin's  "  mis- 
forttme,  but  the  son's  ingenuity  so  pleased  the 
father  that  he  escaped  punishment.  Necessity- 
is  the  mother  of  invention,  and  the  sturdy  self- 
reliance,  which  the  isolated  life  of  West's  wil- 
derness home  naturally  developed,  character- 
ized his  whole  later  life  and  work. 


III. 


WEST  CHOOSES  PAINTING  AS  A 
VOCATION. 


o  sketch  of  West  would  be  complete  witli- 


1  ^  out  the  mention  of  an  incident  in  his 
early  life,  which  is  as  beautiful  as  it  is  pro- 
phetic of  his  future  career.  When  he  was 
seven  years  old  his  elder  sister  with  her  infant 
child,  was  visiting  her  parents,  and  one  day 
when  the  child  was  asleep  in  the  cradle,  Mrs. 
West  went  out  with  her  daughter  to  gather 
flowers  in  the  garden,  leaving  the  child  in 
charge  of  Benjamin.  During  this  absence  the 
baby  smiled  in  her  sleep  and  attracted  the  boy's 
attention.  He  picked  up  paper,  and  some  pens 
of  red  and  black  ink  from  the  table  and  began 
to  draw  a  portrait  of  the  baby  as  the  picture, 
here  given,  represents  him  as  doing.  When 


The  child  is  father  of  the  man 
And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 


Wordsworth. 


28      IVest  Chooses  Painting  as  a  Vocation 

,  his  mother  and  sister  returned  he  tried  to  hide 
what  he  had  done,  but  his  mother,  noticing  his 
confusion,  asked  him  to  show  her  the  paper. 
He  presented  the  paper,  pleading  with  her  not 
to  be  angry.  After  looking  at  it  his  mother 
exclaimed,  '*  I  declare  he  has  made  a  likeness 
of  little  Sallie."  She  then  threw  her  arms 
about  him  and  kissed  him  fondly.  "  It  was 
this  kiss  from  my  mother,"  said  West  in  after 
years,  "  that  made  me  a  painter."  Gait  says, 
' '  this  kiss  was  the  birth  of  fine  art  in  the  new 
world." 

One  year  . later,  a  Mr.  Pennington  of  Phila- 
delphia, a  relation  of  West's,  was  so  impressed 
with  the  boy's  drawings  of  birds  and  flowers, 
that  he  sent  him  a  box  of  paints  and  pencils, 
together  with  some  canvass  and  six  engrav- 
ings by  Grevling.  This  gift  filled  West's  world 
full.  He  put  them  on  a  chair  by  his  bed  and 
would  waken  several  times  during  the  night 
and  touch  them  with  his  hand  to  assure  him- 
self that  they  were  real .  But  every  blessing  is 
accompanied  with  danger  and  this  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule.    The  paints  were  the 


West  Chooses  Painting  as  a  Vocation  29 

occasion  of  his  playing  truant  from  school  and 
retiring  to  the  garret  to  test  them  and  his  own 
skill.  During  three  or  four  days  in  the  garret 
he  produced  a  picture,  a  combination  of  two 
of  the  engravings,  with  so  much  skill  that  his 
ingenuity  again  saved  him  from  punishment 
on  the  part  of  his  father  and  school  teacher. 
Sixty-seven  years  later  West  said  to  Gait 
as  they  were  examining  his  famous  picture 
"Christ  rejected,"  that  there  were  inventive 
touches  in  this  first  attempt  in  the  garret  that 
with  all  his  later  experience  he  had  not  been 
able  to  surpass.  Perhaps  it  is  for  this  reason, 
as  well  as  its  historic  interest,  that  this  first 
attempt  now  a  small  and  faded  landscape, 
hangs  by  the  side  of  his  ' '  Christ  healing  the 
sick, ' '  in  the  Royal  Academy  of  I^ondon.  His 
early  developed  capacity,  early  brought  him 
work  to  do.  He  painted  portraits  of  friends 
in  Philadelphia,  Chester  and  Lancaster.  When 
at  I^ancaster,  he  painted  his  Death  of 
Socrates,"  with  a  handsome  young  workman 
for  his  model  of  the  slave  who  administered 
the  poison . 


30     West  Chooses  Painti7ig  as  a  Vocatimi 

The  bent  of  his  genius  was  now  apparent, 
and  led  to  a  crisis  in  his  life — a  crisis  of  singular 
interest.  When  he  was  sixteen  years  old  his 
father  was  anxious  to  settle  him  in  business. 
The  boy's  aptness  and  capacity  for  painting 
were  such  that  he  did  not  want  to  thwart  the 
bias  of  his  talent,  and  yet  he  knew  that  the  pro- 
fession of  a  painter  was  adverse  to  the  religious 
tenets  of  the  Friends.  In  this  perplexity  a 
meeting  of  the  Society  of  Friends  was  called  to 
decide  the  destiny  of  his  son.  In  regard  to 
the  story  of  this  meeting  as  well  as  other 
stories  it  ought  to  be  said,  that  around  the 
picturesque  person  of  West  have  grown  up 
many  romantic  stories  which  have,  perhaps, 
been  embellished.  But  those  who  dogmatically 
assert,  as  Dunlap  does  in  his  "  Histor-  of  the 
Arts  of  Design,"  that  the  story  of  West's  first 
effort  in  art  and  the  story  of  this  meeting  are 
pure  fiction,  give  no  valid  reasons  for  rejecting 
them.  And  while  the  stories  may  not  be  reli- 
able in  all  their  details,  we  have,  no  doubt,  the 
essential  truth  or  spirit  of  the  occurrences  which 
after  all  is  the  thing  of  value.    The  account 


IVest  Chooses  Painting  as  a  Vocation  31 

of  this  meeting  which  has  been  handed  down 
preserves  for  us,  we  may  believe,  the  spirit  of 
what  actually  took  place.  In  the  meeting 
house  near  Springfield  there  was  a  large 
attendance.  After  prolonged  debate  in  which 
there  was  great  difference  of  opinion  and  deep 
feeling  a  certain  John  Williamson  arose  and 
delivered  a  speech  which  deserves  to  be  remem- 
bered and  ought  to  make  Williamson  one  of 
the  saints  on  the  Friend's  calendar.  He  said 
in  part,  ' '  Friend  West  and  his  wife  have  blame- 
less reputations.  They  have  had  ten  children, 
whom  they  have  carefully  brought  up  in  the 
fear  of  God  and  the  Christian  religion.  And  the 
youth  whose  lot  in  life  we  are  now  convened 
to  consider,  is  Benjamin,  their  youngest  child. 
It  is  known  to  you  all  that  God  is  pleased  from 
time  to  time  to  bestow  on  some  men  extra- 
ordinary gifts  of  mind,  and  you  need  not  be 
told  by  how  wonderful  an  inspiration  their  son 
has  been  led  to  cultivate  the  art  of  painting. 
It  is  true  that  our  tenets  deny  the  utility  of 
that  art  to  mankind.  But  God  has  bestowed 
on  the  youth  a  genius  for  the  art,  and  can  we 


32      West  Chooses  Painting  as  a  Vocation 

believe  that  Omniscience  bestows  His  gifts  but 
for  great  purposes  ?  What  God  has  given  who 
shall  dare  to  throw  away  ?  Let  us  not  estimate 
Almighty  Wisdom  by  our  notions,  let  us  not 
presume  to  arraign  His  judgment  by  our  ignor- 
ance. *  *  By  our  maxims  we  have 
excluded  the  study  of  the  fine  arts  for  we  see 
them  applied  only  to  embellish  pleasures  and 
to  strengthen  our  inducements  to  gratify  the 
senses  at  the  expense  of  our  immortal  claims. 
But  because  we  have  seen  painting  put  to  this 
derogatory  use  and  have  in  consequence  pro- 
hibited the  cultivation  of  it  among  us,  are  we 
sure  that  it  is  not  one  of  those  gracious  gifts 
which  God  has  bestowed  on  the  world,  not  to 
add  to  the  sensual  pleasures  of  man,  but  to 
facilitate  his  improvement  as  a  social  and 
moral  being  ?  The  fine  arts  are  called  the  off- 
spring and  the  emblems  of  peace.  The  Chris- 
tian religion  itself,  is  the  doctrine  of  good  will 
to  man.  Can  these  things  which  only  prosper 
in  peace  be  contrary  to  the  Christian  religion  ? 
But  it  is  said  that  the  fine  arts  soften  and  emas- 
culate the  mind.    In  what  )vay  ?    Is  it  by 


West  Chooses  Painting'  as  a  Vocation  33 

withdrawing  those  who  study  them  from  the 
robust  exercises  which  enable  nations  and  peo- 
ple to  make  war  with  success  ?  Is  it  by  less- 
ening the  disposition  of  mankind  to  destroy 
one  another  and  by  taming  the  audacity  of 
their  animal  fierceness  ?  Is  it  for  such  a  reason 
as  this,  that  we  who  profess  to  live  in  unison 
and  friendship,  not  only  among  ourselves  but 
with  all  the  world,  that  we  should  object  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  fine  arts,  of  those  arts  that 
disarm  the  natural  ferocity  of  man  ?  We  may 
as  well  be  told  that  the  doctrine  of  peace  and  life 
ought  to  be  proscribed  in  the  world,  because 
it  is  pernicious  to  the  practice  of  war  and 
slaughter,  as  that  the  arts  which  call  on  man 
to  exercise  his  intellectual  powers  more  than 
his  phyical  strength  can  be  contrary  to  Chris- 
tianity. ^  ^  *  Can  we  believe  that  the 
fine  arts  are  not  for  some  useful  purpose  ? 
What  that  purpose  is,  ought  we  to  pretend  to 
investigate?  L,et  us  rather  reflect  that  the 
Almighty  God  has  been  pleased  among  us  and 
in  this  remote  wilderness  to  endow,  with  the 
rich  gifts  of  a  peculiar  spirit,  this  youth.  May 


34      IVes^  Chooses  Pamting  as  a  Vocatioyi 

it  be  demonstrated  by  the  life  and  works  of  the 
artist  that  the  gift  of  God  has  not  been  bestowed 
on  him  in  vain,  nor  the  motives  of  the  bene- 
ficent inspiration  which  induces  us  to  suspend 
our  particular  tenets  prove  barren  of  religious 
and  moral  effect."  This  speech,  with  its 
cogent  logic,  its  self-evident  truth  and  its 
eloquence,  which  even  yet  has  not  all  evapor- 
ated, won  the  day  as  it  deserved  to  do.  The 
meeting  gave  its  consent,  to  West's  choice  of 
a  profession.  At  its  close  the  women  rose  and 
kissed  the  young  artist  and  the  men  one  by 
one  laid  their  hands  on  his  head,  praying  for  a 
blessing  on  his  life  and  work.  Thus,  says 
Gait,  the  Friends,  the  desendents  of  the  icono- 
clasts who  had  beaten  down  statues  and  burned 
masterpieces  of  art,  were  about  to  show  to  the 
world,  that  the  love  of  beauty  is  universal  and 
unquenchable  and  that  the  sternness  of  the 
Puritans  was  directed  not  so  much  against  art 
and  beauty,  when  legitimately  employed,  but 
against  the  abuse  of  the  emblems  of  the  best 
aspirations  of  the  human  soul. 


IV. 

WEST'S  LOVE  ROMANCE  AND  HIS 
LIFE  IN  ITALY 

"  For  indeed  I  knew 
Of  no  more  subtle  master  under  heaven 
Than  is  the  maiden  passion  for  a  maid 
Not  only  to  keep  down  the  base  in  man 
But  teach  high  thoughts  and  amiable  words 
And  courtliness  and  the  desire  of  fame 
And  love  of  truth  and  all  that  makes  a  man." 

—Tennyson. 


ITH  the  benediction  of  his  people  upon 
his  life  work,  West  now  set  up  as  a 


portrait  painter  in  Philadelphia  and  achieved 
some  success,  while  at  the  same  time  he  be- 
gan his  study  of  history  under  private  tutors. 
These  quiet  days  of  study  were  not  uneventful, 
as  no  period  of  West's  life  was.  If  other  inspi- 
ration was  needed  than  that  which  he  received 
in  the  little  meeting  house  at  Springfield  when 
he  was  made  to  feel  that  his  work  was  to  be  a 
religious  mission  rather  than  an  ambitious 
career,  that  inspiration  was  now  found  in  the 
next  great  experience  of  his  life,  an  experi- 


36     Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy 

ence  second  to  none  in  its  power  to  inspire 
faithful  work  and  noble  achievement,  the  ex- 
perience of  a  sincere  love  for  a  good  woman. 
No  other  experience  so  inspired  West's  ambi- 
tion to  be  a  great  religious  painter  and  embody 
the  spiritual  aspirations  of  the  soul.  For  aside 
from  Christ  Himself,  there  is  no  better  revela- 
tion of  God  to  this  world  than  the  heart  of  a 
true  woman.  West  loved  and  was  loved  in 
turn  by  Elizabeth  Shewell,  to  whom  he  had 
been  introduced  by  his  friend  * '  Mad ' '  Anthony 
Wayne.  She  is  the  central  figure  of  the  pic- 
ture here  given.  West  is  in  the  upper  right 
hand  corner.  The  two  men  sitting  down  are 
West's  half-brother  Thomas  and  his  father. 
West's  treatment  of  his  father  was  always  beau- 
tiful. It  was  like  that  of  the  artist  Turner, 
whose  father  modestly  wanted  to  be  a  servant  in 
his  son's  house,  but  to  whom  his  great  son  said, 
"  No,  we  fought  the  world  together  and  now 
that  it  seeks  to  honor  me,  you  shall  share  all 
the  benefits."  It  was  like  that  of  the  artist 
Herkomer,  whose  first  act,  when  he  rose  to 
name  and  fame  in  London,  was  to  bring  to  his 


Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  37 

home,  his  old  father,  who  was  a  simple  wood- 
chopper  in  the  Black  Forest.  West's  father 
is  properly  introduced  into  this  family  group 
in  the  picture,  for  he  played  an  important  role 
in  his  son's  love  romance.  KHzabeth  Shewell 
came  from  a  good  old  English  family  but  she 
was  an  orphan  and  lived  with  her  brother,  a 
wealthy  merchant  of  Philadelphia.  Elizabeth 
was  gentle  and  beautiful  and  of  great  force  of 
character.  Her  brother  was  a  man  of  iron 
will,  and  wanted  her  to  marry  a  wealthy  suitor, 
a  friend  of  his.  Her  love  was  already  pledged 
to  West,  besides  she  did  not  love  her  brother's 
friend.  Her  brother  forbade  her  to  see  the 
young  unknown  struggling  artist.  She  dis- 
obeyed her  brother's  command  and  met  West 
secretly  at  the  home  of  a  friend.  When  her 
brother  discovered  it,  he  locked  her  in  her 
room  a  solitary  prisoner  and  she  saw  West  no 
more  for  five  years. 

The  sufferings  of  Elizabeth,  together  with 
hard  work  were  too  much  for  West  to  endure 
and  he  became  sick  with  a  fever.  The  sick- 
ness was  a  cloud  not  without  its  silver  lining. 


38      Love  Romance  a7id  His  Life  i?i  Italy 

For  it  was  the  occasion  of  his  discovery  of  the 
"Camera  Obscura."  It  was  on  this  v/ise : 
The  fever  left  him  so  weak  that  he  was  obliged 
to  remain  in  bed  for  days  and  to  have  his  room 
darkened.  The  darkened  room  so  dilated  the 
ptipil  of  his  eye  that  he  could  distinctly  see 
everything  in  the  room.  One  day  while  lying 
in  bed,  he  saw  the  form  of  a  white  cow  enter 
at  one  side  of  the  roof,  walk  across  the  bed 
and  vanish  at  the  other.  This  astonished  him, 
and  he  feared  his  mind  was  impaired  by  the 
disease.  His  sister,  Mrs.  Clarkson,  in  whose 
house  he  was,  also  feared  he  was  delirious. 
She  brought  her  husband  to  the  room.  West 
repeated  his  story  and  said,  at  that  moment  he 
saw  several  little  pigs  running  along  the  roof. 
This  confirmed  his  delirium  in  their  minds 
and  they  sent  for  a  physician.  The  physician 
found  no  symptoms  of  fever ;  the  pulse  w^as 
regular,  the  skin  moist  and  cool,  but  he  gave 
some  medicine  to  compose  his  patient.  After 
his  departure.  West  got  up  to  investigate  the 
cause  of  his  visions  and  discovered  a  diagonal 
knothole  in  the  window  shutters.    When  he 


Love  Romance  and  His  Life  iri  Italy  39 

put  his  hand  over  it,  the  pictures  on  the  wall 
disappeared.  He  thus  began  to  believe  that 
there  must  be  some  simple  natural  cause  for 
what  he  had  seen,  and  he  experimented  with  a 
horizontal  hole  in  the  shutters  so  as  to  throw 
the  pictures  on  the  side  wall,  bu.t  to  his  sur- 
prise, the  objects  were  inverted.  He  now 
contrived  a  box  and  with  the  help  of  a  mirror 
invented  the  camera.  He  was  delighted  to 
secure  the  means  for  showing  him  how  objects 
ought  to  appear  in  a  painting.  When  he  told 
his  discovery  to  the  painter,  Williams,  a  few 
weeks  later,  he  received  a  needed  lesson  in 
humility  when  he  learned  that  Williams  was 
already  the  possessor  of  a  complete  camera 
sent  to  him  from  England.  His  discovery 
had  been  anticipated.  But,  that  a  young  man 
should  invent  one  independently,  shows  his 
keenness  of  observation,  so  necessary  for  the 
work  of  an  artist,  to  which  he  had  dedicated 
himself. 

The  lesson  of  this  invention  and  the  ambi- 
tion to  excel  which  his  love  experience  had 
inspired,  soon  made  West  sensible  of  the  fact 


40     Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy 

that  he  could  not  attain  eminence  in  his  work 
unless  he  visited  Europe  to  inspect  the  great 
masterpieces  of  art,  and  compare  his  power 
with  that  of  the  masters,  that  he  might  under- 
stand the  task  before  him,  if  he  was  ever  to 
do  worthy  work.  Whether  Elizabeth  Shewell 
should  ever  become  his  wife  or  not,  his  love 
for  her  had  done  its  work  for  him  and  created 
ambitions  that  would  not  die.  He  had  already 
gained  her  in  a  true  sense.  He  had  seen  a 
vision .  Henceforth  to  that  vision  he  must  be 
obedient.  He  resolved  to  visit  Europe,  and 
while  he  waited  for  the  consummation  of  his 
fond  hopes,  to  make  himself  worthy  of  the 
true  soul,  to  whom  his  love  was  pledged. 

With  this  end  in  view,  he  left  Philadel- 
delphia  and  went  to  New  York  where  he  could 
get  a  better  price  for  his  portraits,  and  thus 
secure  money  to  make  his  journey  possible. 
He  says  he  found  New  York  much  less  intelli- 
gent in  matters  of  taste  and  knowledge,  than 
Philadelphia,  for  New  York  was  wholly  de- 
voted to  mercantile  pursuits.  And  yet  it  was 
a  merchant  of  New  York,  who  furnished  the 


Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  41 

means  for  West's  visit  to  Europe.  Next  to 
the  man  who  writes  or  paints  a  good  work,  is 
the  man  who  appreciates  it.  This  piece  of 
good  fortune,  of  which  West's  life  is  full, 
came  to  him  on  this  wise :  While  he  was  in 
New  York,  and  in  the  year  1759,  the  harvest 
of  Italy  fell  far  below  the  needs  of  the  country. 
Messrs.  Rutherford  &  Jackson,  of  I^eghorn, 
foreseeing  a  famine,  wrote  their  correspondent 
Mr.  Allen,  of  Philadelphia,  to  send  a  cargo  of 
wheat  and  flour.  Mr.  Allen  wanted  his  son 
to  accompany  the  cargo  and  see  something  of 
the  world.  Mr.  Smith,  West's  old  teacher, 
asked  Mr.  Allen  to  allow  West  to  go  with  his 
son.  West  was  informed  of  the  plan.  He 
expressed  his  desire  to  Mr.  William  Kelly,  of 
New  York,  whose  portrait  he  was  painting. 
When  it  was  finished,  Mr.  Kelly  handed  West 
a  letter,  to  be  presented  to  his  agents  in  Phila- 
delphia. When  the  letter  was  opened  it  was 
found  that  Kelly  had  ordered  his  agents  to  pay 
West  fifty  guineas  to  enable  the  young  gentle- 
man to  study  the  fine  arts  in  Europe.  Accord- 
ingly West,  when  twenty-two  years  old,  and 


42      Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy 

in  the  year  1760,  went  to  Italy  and  studied  for 
three  years. 

West's  visit  to  Italy  changed  the  future 
course  of  his  life.  He  never  saw  America 
again.  The  reason  why  England  and  not 
America  became  his  future  home  illustrates 
one  of  the  great  principles  of  George  KHot's 
writings,  that  men  and  women  are  made  by 
men  and  women.  That  the  nature  and  course 
of  our  lives  are  in  the  hands  of  the  men  and 
women  about  us,  to  a  greater  extent  than  we 
even  dream.  While  in  Italy,  West  visited  the 
picture  galleries  and  studied  the  masterpieces. 
The  Venetian  School  interested  him  the  most. 
Titian's  coloring  was  a  puzzle  to  him.  He 
set  himself  to  discover  its  secret.  He  thought 
he  made  the  discovery.  He  said  it  was  not 
due  to  penciling  or  to  superior  materials,  but 
to  the  artist's  delicacy  of  sight.  This  led  West 
to  paint  first  with  the  pure  primary  colors  and 
then  soften  them  with  semi-tints.  After  years 
of  experiments  he  felt  that  his  discovery  was 
correct.  Two  incidents  of  his  life  in  Rome 
not  only  deserve  to  be  mentioned  but  will 


Love  Ro7nance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  43 

serve  to  show  the  connection  between  his  visit 
to  Italy  and  his  future  life  in  England.  While 
at  Rome  he  became  the  protege  of  a  Mr.  Rob- 
inson, a  prominent  Englishman.  Mr.  Robin- 
son with  about  thirty  of  the  leading  artists 
then  in  Rome,  of  which  Rome  is  always  full, 
took  the  young  Quaker  to  view  the  master- 
pieces of  art,  and  hear  his  criticisms.  They 
took  him  first  to  see  the  Apollo  Belvidere. 
When  it  was  first  revealed  to  him.  West,  all 
unconscious  of  the  spectators  who  were  ar- 
ranged so  as  to  watch  the  effect  of  this  master- 
piece on  him,  exclaimed,  *'  My  God,  how  like 
it  is  to  a  young  Mohawk  warrior."  When 
Mr.  Robinson  translated  this  remark  to  the 
company,  they  were  chagrined  to  have  the 
Apollo  compared  to  a  savage.  But  when 
West  explained  to  them,  the  Indian's  educa- 
tion, their  dexterity  with  the  bow  and  arrow, 
the  elasticity  of  theis  limbs,  how  their  active 
life  expands  the  chest,  while  the  quick  breath- 
ing of  their  speed  in  the  chase  dilates  the  nos- 
trils with  the  same  consciousness  of  power  as 
is  seen  in  the  Apollo  and  how  he  had  seen 


44     Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy 

them  often  standing  in  that  very  attitude  and 
pursuing  with  an  intense  eye,  the  arrow  which 
they  had  discharged  from  the  bow,  the  artists 
present  said  it  was  the  best  criticism  they  had 
heard  on  the  Apollo. 

The  other  incident  referred  to  is  in  connec- 
tion with  the  artist  Mengs.  He  was  then  at 
the  height  of  his  power  and  popularity  as  a 
painter.  He  was  now  painting  Robinson's 
portrait.  West  also  agreed  to  paint  it,  in  order 
to  show  Mengs,  a  sample  of  his  work.  It  was 
agreed  to  keep  it  a  secret  from  the  other  artists. 
When  West's  portrait  was  finished  and  the 
whole  company  of  artists  was  gathered  to 
view  it,  the  universal  verdict  was  that  Mengs 
had  surpassed  himself  and  had  never  done 
anything  so  fine.  Then  the  secret  was  re- 
vealed, that  it  was  West's  and  not  Mengs'  and 
the  incident  greatly  added  to  West's  fortune 
as  a  painter. 

The  news  of  this  occurrence  reached  Phila- 
delphia by  means  of  the  boat  which  had 
brought  the  cargo  of  wheat  to  Italy  and  the 
owner,  Mr.  Allen,  received  it  while  at  dinner^ 


Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  45 


with  Governor  Hamilton,  of  Pennsylvania  and 
others.  They  immediately  sent  word  to  their 
bankers  in  Florence  to  give  West  unlimited 
credit,  to  aid  the  first  young  American  who 
had  gone  to  Europe  to  cultivate  the  fine  arts. 
By  means  of  this  generous  gift,  West  decided 
to  visit  England  on  his  way  home  to  America. 

On  August  20th  and  when  West  was  twenty- 
five  years  old,  he  arrived  in  England.  His 
fame  had  already  preceded  him  and  he  was  at 
once  introduced  to  the  leading  men,  among 
them.  Dr.  Johnson,  Burke  and  Archbishop 
Drummond.  So  warm  was  West's  welcome 
and  so  well  received  were  his  first  pictures, 
that  eminent  Statesmen  and  Bishops  tried  to 
induce  him  to  make  England  his  home.  West 
answered  that  there  was  only  one  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  accepting  their  kind  invitation. 
He  was  betrothed  to  a  young  woman  in  Phila- 
delphia and  he  desired  to  return  to  America  to 
marry  her.  How  this  obstacle  was  surmounted 
constitutes  the  last  chapter  in  a  love  romance, 
stranger  than  fiction. 


46      Love  Romance  and  His  Life  i7i  Italy 

West  had  been  in  Italy  for  three  years  and 
had  not  seen  Elizabeth  Shewell  for  five.  His 
position  now  warranted  their  marriage  and  he 
requested  Elizabeth  to  come  to  England, 
thinking  that  because  he  was  no  longer  an 
unknown  struggling  artist,  her  brother  would 
give  his  consent.  This  Elizabeth  was  glad 
to  do,  for  her  love  had  now  become  a  religion. 
But  her  brother  would  not  yield  and  when  he 
discovered  Elizabeth's  desire,  she  was  again  a 
prisoner  in  her  own  room.  Some  friends  of 
West's  now  determined  to  come  to  his  relief 
and  her  rescue.  These  friends  were  Benjamin 
Franklin,  William  White  (afterwards  Bishop 
of  Pennsj'-lvania) ,  and  Hopkinson  (afterwards 
Judge).  The  plan  agreed  upon,  daring  as  it 
was,  was  carried  out  successfully.  It  was 
past  midnight  and  a  vessel  at  the  dock  was 
ready  to  sail  for  England  in  less  than  an  hour. 
These  three  friends  were  outside  her  brother's 
mansion.  All  was  quiet.  The  third-story 
window  was  raised.  Up  to  it  was  thrown  a 
cord,  to  which  was  attached  a  rope  ladder. 
If  Mr.  Shewell  was  aroused,  all  was  lost. 


Love  Romance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  47 

Elizabeth  quietly  descended  the  ladder.  A 
cab  was  in  waiting  at  the  next  corner.  She 
was  driven  in  speed  to  the  vessel.  Mr.  West's 
father  was  on  board  to  accompany  his  future 
daughter  to  England.  A  few  minutes  later 
the  vessel  weighed  anchor.  The  danger  was 
past.  After  a  stormy  voyage,  they  arrived  in 
Liverpool.  The  romantic  meeting  between 
Elizabeth  Shewell  and  Benjamin  West  at  the 
close  of  this  voyage,  was  not  the  only  meet- 
ing of  tender  interest.  Benjamin's  oldest 
brother  Thomas,  a  man  forty  years  old,  now 
met  his  father  for  the  first  time  in  his  life. 
Shortly  after  John  West's  first  marriage  in 
1724,  he  left  England  to  explore  Pennsylvania, 
before  he  should  settle  in  the  new  land  with 
his  wife.  In  his  absence  his  eldest  son  was 
born  and  his  wife  died  at  her  son's  birth. 
The  new  little  life  was  cared  for  by  relations 
of  the  family,  who  begged  to  be  allowed  to 
keep  the  child,  to  whom  they  had  become 
devoted.  Mr.  West  remained  in  America  and 
married  again.  He  returned  to  England  with 
Miss  Shewell  after  an  absence  of  forty  years. 


48      Love  Romance  ajid  His  Life  i?t  Italy 

The  father  and  son  therefore  had  the  unique 
experience  of  meeting  each  other  for  the  first 
time  in  their  lives.  West  has  put  his  father 
and  half-brother  Thomas  into  his  picture, 

Penn's  Treat}'-  with  the  Indians."  On  Sep- 
tember 2,  1765,  Benjamin  West  and  his  faith- 
ful bride  were  married  in  the  Church  of  Saint 
Martin 's-in-the-Field.  Mrs.  West  was  re- 
ceived with  great  kindness  by  the  King  and 
Queen  and  was  known  at  Court  as  the  '  *  Beau- 
tiful American."  If  Robert  Browning  re- 
quired any  justification  for  the  much  disputed 
theory  he  maintains,  in  an  exaggerated  form, 
in  his  poem,  "  The  Statue  and  the  Bust  "  and 
illustrates  by  his  character,  "  Pompilia  "  he 
could  find  it  in  the  love  romance  of  Benjamin 
West  and  his  wife. 

Elizabeth  Shewell  and  her  brother  were 
never  reconciled.  Many  years  after  her  flight 
and  marriage,  when  West  was  in  the  height  of 
his  success,  he  painted  a  portrait  of  his  wife 
in  her  "  silver  age."  Mrs.  West  sent  it  to  her 
brother  as  a  peace  offering,  but  he  refused  to 
look  at  it,  and  until  his  death  it  was  kept 


Love  Ro7nance  and  His  Life  in  Italy  49 

unopened  in  the  attic.  While  she  suffered 
injustice  at  her  brother's  hands,  her  descend- 
ants have  justified  her  action.  Among  them 
is  the  author  I<eigh  Hunt,  who  was  the  son 
of  Mrs.  West's  niece,  and  the  artist  Frederic 
MacMonnies,  the  maker  of  the  statue  of 
Nathan  Hale,  in  the  City  Hall  Park,  New 
York,  and  the  MacMonnies  fountain  at  the 
Columbian  Exhibition  in  Chicago.  They  are 
proiid  to  own  as  an  ancestress  a  woman  who 
had  the  insight  to  see  that  the  spiritual  ties  of 
affection  are  deeper  than  the  ties  of  blood  kin, 
and  that  loyalty  to  him  is  more  imperative, 
because  the  former  are  voluntarily  entered 
into  with  one  whom  you  freely  choose  to  love, 
while  the  latter  are  thrust  upon  you  by  neces- 
sary relationships  and  may  have  no  spiritual 
justification  for  their  existence,  and  they  honor 
the  memory  of  her  who  was  strong  enough  to 
live  out  her  convictions. 


V. 


WEST  SETTLES  IN  ENGLAND.  HIS 
RELATION  TO  AMERICA. 


"Not  all  the  waters  of  that  ocean',  which  divides, 
but  cannot  divorce  them,  can  wash  out  of  the  conscious- 
ness of  either  nation  (England  and  America),  the  feeling 
that  we  hold  our  intellectual  property  in  common,  that 
we  owe  allegiance  to  the  same  moral  and  literary  tradi- 
tions and  that  the  fame  of  those  who  have  shed  lustre 
on  our  race,  as  it  is  an  undivided  inheritance,  so  it  im- 
poses an  equal  debt  of  gratitude,  an  equal  responsibility 
on  the  two  great  branches  of  it." — LOWELL. 


N  his  way  back  from  Italy,  West  went  to 


England  with  no  other  intention  than  to 
visit  America's  "old  home."  But  circumstan- 
ces, over  which  he  had  no  control  and  which 
played  so  large  a  part  in  West's  life,  once  again 
became  potent  and  changed  his  whole  future 
history.  England  now  became  his  life  home. 
He  did  not  see  America  again.  The  factors 
which  thus  changed  his  life  plan  were  two.  One 
was  the  low  condition  of  public  taste  on  matters 
of  art.  England  had  partly  written  her  book  of 
deeds.    She  had  written  less  of  the  book  of  her 


Wesf  Settles  in  England  5 1 


words.  The  book  of  her  art  she  had  hardly 
begun.  ' '  Artists  stood,' '  says  Gait,  ' '  lower  in 
the  scale  of  society  than  actors,  for  Garrick  had 
redeemed  the  profession  of  the  latter  from  deg 
radation."  Re3^nolds  at  this  time  was  only  a 
portrait  painter,  for  the  public  taste  encouraged 
no  more.  Garrick,  one  day,  told  West  a  story 
of  the  Artist  Hogarth,  which  too  sadly  illus- 
trated the  condition  of  fine  arts  in  England. 
When  Hogarth  had  published  the  plates  of  his 
Election  Procession,"  he  tried  to  sell  the 
paintings.  His  plan  was  to  do  it  by  a  raffle  of 
two  hundred  chances,  at  two  guineas  the  stake. 
A  day  was  fixed  when  the  subscribers  should 
assemble  at  the  artist's  house  to  throw  for  their 
chances.  From  about  one  hundred  subscribers,. 
Garrick  was  the  only  one  who  came  to  take 
his  chance.  The  artist  was  pained  and  irri- 
tated, but  insisted  that  Garrick  should  go 
through  the  form  of  throwing  the  dice.  Gar- 
rick reluctantly  consented,  but  refused  to  take 
the  paintings  with  him,  promising  to  send  for 
them.  On  his  return  home  the  actor  sent  the 
artist  a  note,  saying  that  he  could  not  remove 


52 


West  Settles  in  E7igland 


the  paintings  without  sending  a  money  con- 
sideration, but,  knowing  that  any  offer  of 
money  would  be  refused,  he  had  placed,  at  his 
bankers,  two  hundred  guineas  at  the  disposal 
of  Hogarth  or  his  heirs,  which  would  remain 
whether  it  was  then  accepted  or  not.  Thus  the 
low  condition  of  public  taste  and  England's 
need  was  the  invitation  to  West,  to  remain  and 
help  educate  the  taste  and  meet  the  need. 

The  other  influence  that  kept  West  in  Eng- 
land was  the  somewhat  remarkable  encourage- 
ment which  men  like  Markham,  Newton,  John- 
son, Burke,  Garrick,  Goldsmith,  Reynolds  and 
especially  Archbishop  Drummond  gave  to  so 
young  a  man .  Their  encouragement  was  earn- 
est in  proportion  as  che  public  taste  was  low. 
Their  importunity  became  West's  opportunity. 
Drummond  attempted  to  raise  a  yearly  salary 
for  West  that  he  might  give  his  time  to  histor- 
ical painting.  When  this  failed,  he  felt  the 
failure  as  a  stigma  on  his  country  and  became 
more  earnest  in  his  devotion  to  West.  He  now 
saw  no  way  of  engrafting  a  taste  for  the  fine 
arts  on  the  British  public,  unless  they  secured 


IVesl  Settles  in  England  53 


the  patronage  of  King  George  the  Third.  One 
night,  at  dinner,  Drummond  read  to  West  the 
passage  from  Tacitus  which  describes  ' '  Agrip- 
pina  landing  with  the  ashes  of  Germanicns," 
and  asked  him  to  paint  the  scene.  The  next 
morning  West  returned  with  a  sketch  of  it. 
When  it  was  finished  the  King  was  asked  to 
see  it,  and  Drummond  told  him  the  story  of  its 
rapid  production.  The  King  thought  he  had 
discovered  a  genius.  The  king  read  to  West 
a  passage  from  Livy,  describing  the  ''final 
departure  of  Regulus  from  Rome,"  and  asked 
him  to  paint  it.  From  this  time  George  the 
Third,  bestowed  on  West  his  exclusive  patron- 
age and  made  him  historical  painter  to  the 
King. 

When  Reynolds  and  West  withdrew  from 
an  art  association,  because  of  the  bitter  jeal- 
ousy among  the  artists,  the  King  asked  the 
reason,  and  proposed  that  he  would  start  one  for 
West  and  his  friends.  It  would  be  the  Royal 
Academy.  In  that  conversation  this  great 
institution  was  born.  West  and  the  King 
drew  up  the  plans,  and  without  his  knowledge 


54 


West  Settles  in  E7igland 


or  consent,  Reynolds  was  selected  as  its  first 
president.  West  succeeded  Reynolds  as  its 
second  president.  When  he  was  elected  the 
King  wished  to  confer  on  him  the  honor  of 
Knighthood.  He  refused  it  on  the  ground  that, 
being  already  so  well  known,  it  would  add  noth- 
ing to  his  name  and  fame.  In  his  reply  to  the 
King,  he  said  :  "  The  chief  value  of  titles  is, 
that  they  serve  to  preserve,  in  families,  a  re- 
spect for  those  principles  by  which  such  dis- 
tinctions were  originally  obtained.  But  simple 
Knighthood  to  a  man,  w^ho  is  at  least  already 
as  well  known  as  he  could  ever  hope  to  be  from 
that  honor,  is  not  a  legitimate  object  of  ambi- 
tion." This  act  shows  not  only  his  sincerity 
of  character,  which  the  King  liked,  but  also 
that  he  had  proved  worthy  of  the  confidence 
which  the  best  men  of  the  nation  had  placed 
in  him.  The  Royal  Academy  expressed  appre- 
ciation of  West's  long  ser^dce,  as  its  president, 
by  presenting  to  him,  late  in  life,  a  gold  medal, 
now  owned  by  William  P.  West,  of  Philadel- 
phia. A  cut  of  this  medal  appears  on  the  cover 
of  this  ].)Ook. 


Wesf  Settles  in  Efigland  55 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  Royal  Academy 
and  under  the  patronage  and  suggestion  of  the 
King  that  West  painted  most  of  his  pictures. 
It  was  these  two  influences,  the  need  of  the 
British  public,  and  the  help  from  a  few  great 
men,  that  formed  the  tide  in  West's  affairs 
which  led  him  on  to  fortune.  It  must  not  be 
thought  that  the  good  fortune  of  circumstances, 
so  prominent  in  West's  life,  was  a  blind  fate 
which  accounts  for  his  success.  He  took  the 
flood  at  its  tide.  He  met  the  opportunity  with 
marked  ability,  and  one  of  the  elements  of 
greatness,  in  his  life,  is  that  rare  judgment,  so 
necessary  to  success  in  any  profession,  which 
understands  the  value  of  a  thing  when  he  sees 
it,  and  rightly  estimates  the  worth  of  an  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  only  when  destiny  and  character 
unite,  as  George  Meredith  teaches  in  his  novels, 
that  you  find  a  successful  life  such  as  West's. 
Because  of  the  rare  opportunity,  which  England 
offered  him,  and  his  own  marked  ability  and 
pure  character.  West's  life  was  one  long  record 
of  success  and  peace.  His  end  was  in  keeping 
with  his  life.    The  quiet  of  his  artistic  little 


56  Wissf  Settles  in  England 


home  in  Bedford  street,  Co  vent  Garden,  which 
Leigh  Hunt  describes  for  us,  was  not  disturbed 
until  his  wife,  the  object  of  his  love  for  sixty 
years,  died,  December  6,  1817.  Twenty -seven 
months  later  the  artist  "  fell  on  sleep,"  at  the 
age  of  eighty-two  years.  His  pall-bearers 
were  artists,  statesmen  and  noblemen.  He 
was  laid  to  rest  in  the  southeast  corner  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  near  the  graves  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  Near  by 
have  since  been  laid  the  bodies  of  Millais, 
Landseer  and  Turner.  His  life-story  reads 
like  a  fairy  tale,  for,  as  Hawthorne  says,  it 
was  a  wonderful  transformation  from  that  of 
a  little  unknown  Quaker  lad,  in  the  wilds  of 
America,  to  that  of  the  most  distinguished 
painter  of  his  day.  The  transformation  was 
affected  by  West's  making  the  highest  use  of 
his  natural  abilities,  and  this  is  the  lesson  of 
his  life.  West  was  simple  and  natural  in  his 
tastes  all  his  life.  He  was  fond  of  out-door 
sport.  He  often  went  fishing  with  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Davy.  General  Howe  thought  him  the 
finest  skater  in  America,  and  when  West  went 


West  Settles  in  England  57 

to  London,  Howe's  praises  of  his  skill  as  a 
skater,  which  West  demonstrated,  attracted 
the  attention  of  many  persons  who  came  to  sit 
for  their  portraits.  The  peace  and  success  of 
his  life  were  attained  because  he  followed  the 
footpaths  which  Henry  Van  Dyke  points  out, 
as  the  way  to  it,  and  which  have  a  fitting  ap- 
plication to  West.  ' '  To  be  glad  of  life  because 
it  gives  you  the  chance  to  love,  and  to  work, 
and  to  play,  and  to  look  up  to  the  stars,  to  be 
satisfied  with  your  possessions,  but  not  content 
with  yourself,  till  you  have  made  the  best  of 
them.  To  despise  nothing  in  the  world  except 
falsehood  and  meanness,  and  to  fear  nothing 
except  cowardice;  to  be  governed  by  your 
admirations  rather  than  by  your  disgusts ;  to 
covet  nothing  that  is  your  neighbor's  except 
his  kindness  of  heart  and  gentleness  of  man- 
ners; to  think  seldom  of  your  enemies,  often 
of  your  friends  and  every  day  of  Christ,  and  to 
spend  as  much  time  as  you  can  with  body  and 
with  spirit  in  God's  out-of-doors.  These  are 
little  guideposts  on  the  footpath  to  peace. ' ' 


58  IVesl  Settles  in  England 

West's  relation  to  King  George  the  Third 
and  to  his  native  land,  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  is  a  matter  of  deep  interest.  He 
retained  the  friendship  of  the  King  and  the 
good  opinion  of  his  American  friends  by  re- 
maining neutral.  He  talked  freely  with  the 
King  about  the  war  and  supplied  him  with 
valuable  information,  among  which  was  doubt- 
less the  opinion  prevailing  in  America,  that 
Washington  took  charge  of  the  American  army 
with  the  hope  and  purpose  of  affecting  a  recon- 
ciliation. But  a  letter  with  this  object  was  not 
laid  before  the  King  and  Privy  Council  until 
six  weeks  after  it  was  received  and  then  it  was 
too  late.  It  must  be  remembered  that  West 
was  technically  not  an  American  citizen,  but 
always  a  British  subject.  For  West  left 
America  before  American  citizenship  had  been 
established,  or  the  War  of  Independence 
fought.  Hence  he  was  in  reality  never  any- 
thing else  than  a  subject  of  the  King.  King 
George  the  Third  was  sitting  to  West  for 
his  portrait  when  a  messenger  brought  him 
the  Declaration  of  American  Independence. 


Wesi  Settles  in  England  59 

He  was  agitated  at  first,  said  West  afterwards 
to  Samuel  Morse,  then  sat  silent  and  thought- 
ful. At  length  the  King  said  :  "  Well  if  they 
cannot  be  happy  under  my  government  I  hope 
they  may  not  change  it  for  a  worse.  I  wish 
them  no  ill."  This  remark  of  the  King 
will  explain  why  his  friendship  for  West  was 
not  broken  because  of  West's  love  for  his 
native  land. 

West  did  not  remain  aloof  from  the  war 
that  followed  because  he  was  opposed  to  bear- 
ing arms  He  was  not  unacquainted  with  the 
manual  of  the  soldier.  After  the  destruction 
of  Braddock's  army  he  enlisted  and  became 
captain  of  a  company  of  sharp-shooters,  in  a 
regiment  raised  in  Chester  County  by  Colonel 
Wayne,  and  in  company  with  the  Colonel's  son, 
afterwards  ' '  Mad  ' '  Anthony  Wayne,  he  assisted 
in  taking  Fort  Dusquesne  (Pittsburg)  and  then 
went  with  General  Forbes  in  search  of  the 
relics  of  Braddock's  army  through  the  forests. 
Nor  did  West  refrain  from  the  war  because  he 
did  not  sympathize  with  the  American  cause. 
He  was  a  decided  republican .    He  was  often 


6o  IVesf  Settles  in  England 

suspected  of  leaning  to  his  native  side  in  poli- 
tics. He  was  a  warm  admirer  of  the  republi- 
can chief,  Napoleon.  He  kept  it  no  secret. 
During  Napoleon's  triumph  he  went  to  Paris 
to  pay  him  his  respects.  Napoleon  in  turn 
admired  his  pictures.  After  Napoleon's  down- 
fall, West  still  retained  the  love  he  had  for  the 
"  first  consul ;  "  "it  was  a  wedded  love,"  says 
Leigh  Hunt,  "  for  better,  for  worse."  While 
West  was  a  soldier  and  a  republican ,  he  saw 
that  to  take  sides  in  the  war,  meant  an  inter- 
ruption of  his  life  work.  His  mission  to  art 
was  too  important  to  be  sacrificed.  He  there- 
fore remained  neutral.  But  while  he  was 
neutral,  his  love  for  his  native  land  did  not 
burn  low.  He  was  especially  kind  to  Ameri- 
can students  in  London .  His  talents  and  purse 
were  at  their  service.  Indeed  his  liberality  to 
them  impaired  his  fortune.  West's  kindness 
to  brother  artists  and  his  freedom  from  jealousy 
is  beautifully  illustrated  by  the  stor}^  of  the 
reconciliation  which  he  effected  between  King 
George  the  Third  and  the  well-known  en- 
graver. Sir  Robert  Strange,  without  which 


JVest  Settles  in  England  6i 

Strange 's  life-work  would  have  been  ruined. 
Perhaps  his  feeling  to  America  is  best  illus- 
trated by  his  picture,  "Christ  healing  the 
sick,"  a  cut  of  which  is  here  given.  Some 
Friends  in  Philadelphia  decided  to  build  a 
hospital  for  the  sick  poor,  which  was  built  at 
Ninth  and  Spruce  Streets  and  known  as  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital.  They  applied  to  West 
for  a  contribution.  He  replied,  that  he  was 
unable  to  give  money,  but  would  paint  a  pic- 
ture, to  be  placed  in  the  hospital.  He  wrote  to 
Samuel  Coates,  under  date  of  July  8,  1801, 
that  he  had  chosen  a  subject  appropriate  to 
the  situation  taken  from  Matthew  xxi,  14,  15, 
where  Christ's  healing  the  sick  is  described. 
When  the  picture  was  finished,  it  attracted  so 
much  attention  that  the  British  Institution 
offered  him  three  thousand  guineas  for  it.  He 
accepted,  on  condition  that  he  could  make  a 
copy  of  it  for  the  hospital.  The  returns  from 
the  exhibition  of  it  in  America  were  so  great 
that  the  hospital  was  enlarged  for  the  reception 
of  thirty  new  patients.  For  thirty  years  it  was 
a  source  of  revenue  to  the  hospital,  during 


62  Wesl  Settles  m  England 


which  time  it  hung  in  a  building  especially- 
prepared  for  it.  For  sixteen  years  past  it  has 
hung  in  the  clinic  room,  inspiring  medical 
men  with  a  sense  of  their  high  calling.  A  new 
chapel  building  is  now  being  erected  in  which 
the  picture  will  be  hung.  The  size  of  the  pic- 
ture is  ten  by  sixteen  feet. 

This  picture  not  only  illustrates  West's  kind- 
ness of  heart  and  love  of  native  land,  but  also 
one  of  his  characteristic  faults  as  a  painter, 
which  it  would  be  well  to  notice  before  pro- 
ceeding to  examine  his  other  pictures,  even  if 
it  seems  like  sacrilege  to  point  it  out  in  con- 
nection with  the  picture's  worthy  purpose. 
For  West's  place  in  the  history  of  art  will  not 
be  benefited  by  being  blind  to  his  faults.  We 
can  be  admirers  without  being  partisans. 

There  are  upwards  of  forty  figures  introduced 
into  this  picture,  and  one  is  astonished  that 
amidst  all  this  variety  there  should  be  so  little 
variation.  Two-thirds  of  the  figures  are  dupli- 
cates of  the  others.  The  whole  seems  to  have 
been  modeled  from  five  or  six  figures  and  then 
placed  on  the  canvas  with  little  power,  for 


IVest  Settles  in  England  63 


the  artist  has  placed  the  greater  number  of  his 
counterpart  countenances  in  juxtaposition,  so 
that  you  feel  you  are  looking  at  a  large  family 
group.  The  aged  persons  are  repetitions  in 
form  and  feature  of  one  another ;  so  are  the 
men  and  women  and  children.  The  figure  who 
with  bended  knee  and  outstretched  hands,  has 
so  awkwardly  let  go  his  hold  of  the  cripple,  is 
brother  to  the  man  who  appears  above  his  head 
supporting  the  woman,  and  between  the  head 
of  the  sick  woman  and  that  of  her  supporter 
there  is  a  woman's  face  which  is  a  verisimili- 
tude of  the  woman  who  has  the  crutch  of  the 
cripple  in  her  hand.  The  woman  who  has  the 
child  on  her  knee  is  sister  to  the  blind  woman, 
whose  head  appears  over  her.  Behind  the 
supporter  of  the  cripple  are  two  youths  who 
are  intended  to  appear  in  earnest  conversation, 
but  their  countenances  are  inane.  One  critic 
says,  that  if  it  had  been  West's  idea  that  sick- 
ness and  disease  ran  only  in  certain  families, 
and  that  almost  all  the  members  were  afflicted 
with  paralysis  or  blindness  or  lameness,  he 
could  not  have  told  his  story  more  effectually. 


64 


West  Settles  in  England 


Kiglit  or  nine  figures  on  the  canvas  would 
have  told  the  story  West  had  in  mind  just 
as  well.  The  others  are  not  needed  and  there- 
fore are  a  blemish.  Yet  with  all  its  defects, 
Hawthorne  was  right  when  he  said  of  it, 
that  "if  Benjamin  West  had  done  no  other 
good  deed  than  this,  yet  it  would  have  been 
enough  to  entitle  him  to  an  honorable  remem- 
brance forever.  At  this  very  day  there  are 
thirty  poor  people,  in  the  hospital,  who  owe 
all  their  comforts  to  that  same  picture." 


VI. 


WEST'S  PORTRAIT  PAINTINGS. 


"Human  portraits  faithfully  drawn  are  of  all  por- 
traits the  welcomest  on  human  walls — Carlyle. 


East's  works  are  numerous.    They  have 


V  V  been  estimated  to  exceed  three  thou- 
sand, and  a  calculation  has  shown  that  were 
all  his  works  collected  together,  it  would 
require  a  gallery  eight  hundred  feet  long,  fifty 
feet  broad  and  twenty  feet  high,  to  contain 
them.  As  one  begins  to  examine  this  long  list 
of  paintings,  he  cannot  help  wondering  why  so 
few  of  them  are  generally  known  and  loved, 
why  so  few  copies  of  them  hang  upon  the  walls 
of  our  homes.  If  one  sought  an  answer  to 
this  question  he  would  soon  discover  that, 
while  West  had  a  fine  imagination  and  a  fine 
eye  for  the  best  historical  situations,  as  the 
subjects  of  his  pictures  show,  yet  the  constant 
demands  on  his  imagination  weakened  it.  For 
fifty  years  he  presented  a  new  painting  to  the 


66  Wesfs  Portrait  Paintings 

annual  exhibition  in  London,  without  an  omis- 
sion. No  man  can  paint  three  thousand 
pictures  in  one  life  time  and  do  it  well.  West 
had  the  same  greed  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  had, 
to  do  two  days  work  in  one.  The  result  in 
both  cases  was  the  same,  a  prodigality  of  work, 
but  a  loss  of  inspiration  and  vitality,  a  degen- 
eration from  genius  to  talent. 

West's  reach  exceeded  his  grasp,  because  he 
always  had  the  best  opinion  of  himself  In 
describing  his  visit  to  Paris  to  see  the  paint- 
ings, at  once  *'  the  glory  and  shame  of  Bona- 
parte's administration,"  he  says,  "wherever 
I  went  men  looked  at  me  and  ministers  and 
people  of  state  were  constantly  in  my  company. 
I  was  one  day  in  the  Lourve ;  all  eyes  were  upon 
me  and  I  could  not  help  observing  to  Charles 
Fox  who  happened  to  be  walking  with  me,  how 
strong  was  the  love  of  art  and  admiration  of 
its  professors,  in  France."  "  The  complacent 
simplicity,"  says  Gait,  "which  could  imagine 
the  public  attention,  to  be  exclusively  directed 
to  himself  when  there  is  no  doubt,  the  great 
object  of  interest  was  the  great  statesman,  who 


West's  Portrait  Paintings  67 

accompanied  him  is  sufficiently  characteristic 
and  amusing. ' '  It  was  West's  conceit  that  led 
him  to  attempt  too  much.  But  he  was  faith- 
ful up  to  the  limit  of  his  abilities.  The 
evidence  of  study  and  hard  work  in  his  pictures 
is  apparent.  This  characteristic  is  well  illus- 
trated by  a  story  told  of  his  relation  to  Morse. 
The  inventor  of  the  telegraph  was  strongly 
attracted  to  art  in  his  youth.  He  decided  to 
become  a  painter  and  went  to  London,  in  181 1 
with  Allston  to  study  in  the  Royal  Academy 
under  West.  As  a  test  of  his  fitness  for  a 
place  as  a  student  in  the  academy,  he  made  a 
drawing  of  the  cast  of  the  "  Dying  Hercules," 
for  which  he  afterwards  received  a  gold  medal. 
He  took  the  drawing  to  West,  who  had  been 
kind  to  him .  West  looked  at  it  and  handed  it 
back  saying  only,  very  well,  go  on  and  finish 
it."  "  It  is  finished,"  said  Morse  surprised. 
"Oh  no,"  said  the  famous  painter.  "Look 
here,  and  here,  and  here,"  and  he  pointed  out 
many  unfinished  places  in  the  drawing.  Morse 
somewhat  mortified,  spent  a  week  in  perfect- 
ing it.    When  he  took  it  back,  the  venerable 


68  Wesfs  Portrait  Paintings 

academician  only  examined  it  briefly  and  said 
as  before,  ' '  very  well,  go  on  and  finish  it. "  "Is 
it  not  finished?"  asked  Morse.  ''No,"  said 
West,  "  you  have  not  marked  the  articulation 
of  the  finger  joints,  or  this  muscle,  or  that." 
Three  days  more  were  spent  on  the  drawing 
and  then  it  was  taken  back.  Very  clever," 
said  the  implacable  critic,  ''go  on  and  finish 
it. "  "I  cannot  finish  it, "  cried  Morse,  utterly 
discouraged.  Then  West  smiled,  satisfied. 
"  Now  you  have  learned  your  lesson  and  I 
have  tried  you  long  enough.  It  is  not  half 
finished  beginnings,  but  one  thorough  draw- 
ing, that  makes  the  artist  ;  learn  to  finish  one 
picture  and  you  are  a  painter."  West's  prin- 
ciple stated  to  Morse,  is  indispensable  and  is 
in  accord  with  Michael  Angelo's  dictum, 
"Trifles  make  perfection,  and  perfection  is  no 
trifle. ' '  Had  West  added  to  his  finish  of  detail, 
passion  and  expression,  he  would  have  been  a 
greater  painter.  It  is  because  he  had  a  genius 
for  work  and  detail,  but  lacked  the  free  play 
of  genius  that  the  first  impression  in  looking 
at  his  pictures  is  the  best.    With  any  picture 


West's  Portrait  Paintings  69 

of  a  great  master,  the  reverse  is  true.  It  may 
be  unattractive  at  first,  but  the  more  one  studies 
it,  the  greater  it  becomes.  It  is  like  a  great 
book  which  one  must  read  and  re-read  and 
grow  up  to  and  perhaps  never  outgrow. 
West's  pictures  are  like  the  books  we  can 
exhaust  at  the  first  reading  and  do  not  care  to 
read  again.  True  this  is  a  high  standard  and 
it  rules  out  the  majority  of  West's  paintings. 
A  few  approach  it  and  deserve  to  be  remem- 
bered. Excluding  his  pictures  of  mythological 
scenes,  among  the  best  of  which  are,  "  Orestes 
and  Pylades  before  Iphigenia  ' '  and  ' '  Hector 
parting  with  Andromache,  his  wife,  and  Asty- 
anax,  his  child,"  West's  paintings  may  be 
said  to  fall  into  four  general  groups  :  Portrait 
paintings,  Religious  pictures,  L^esser  historical 
scenes  and  Greater  historical  scenes.  The 
illustrations  of  each  group  here  given,  are 
among  those  pictures  of  West's  which  still  live. 

In  regard  to  the  first  group,  a  brief  word 
will  sufl&ce,  for  West  was  a  historical  not  a 
portrait  painter.  The  English  speaking  world 
has  come  to  agree  with  Carlyle  that :  ' '  Human 


70 


West's  Portrait  Pai7itings 


portraits  faithfully  drawn  are  of  all  portraits 
the  welcomest  on  human  walls. ' '  And  the 
poet  painter  George  Frederic  Watts  has  done 
more  than  any  other  artist  of  this  century  to 
raise  this  branch  of  art  to  its  right  place. 
But,  while  painters  in  West's  day  spent  much 
time  in  painting  portraits,  portrait  painting 
was  not  what  Watts  has  made  it  to  be,  a  por- 
trayal of  the  central  feature  of  each  soul,  on 
the  outward  form  and  features.  If  we  want  a 
real  portrait,  that  is,  among  English  artists, 
we  will  not  go  back  of  Watts.  Tennyson 
once  asked  Watts  to  describe  his  notion  of 
what  a  true  portraitist  should  be.  The  reply 
so  impressed  the  poet  that  he  embodied  it  in 
his  "Idylls  of  the  King." 

"  As  when  a  painter,  poring  on  a  face 
Divinely,  thro'ail  hindrance,  finds  the  man 
Behind  it,  and  so  paints  him  that  his  face, 
The  shape  and  color  of  a  mind  and  life, 
Lives  for  his  children,  ever  at  its  best." 

West  began  his  work  as  a  portrait  painter 
and  some  of  his  portraits  are  worthy  of  note, 
among  which  is  his  portrait  of  General  Wash- 
ington.   There  is  one  ideal  portrait  of  West's 


Wesfs  Portrait  Paintings  71 

which  approaches  the  merit  of  Watts.  For  the 
outward  form  and  inward  spirit  correspond. 
It  is  his  ' '  King  I^ear  ' ' — a  cut  of  which  is  given . 
The  original  is  now  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum. 
The  situation  is  taken  from  the  fourth  scene 
of  the  third  act  of  Shakespeare's  play.  The 
scene  is  on  the  heath  before  a  hovel  in  the 
midst  of  a  storm.  The  characters  represented 
in  the  scene  are,  the  fool  who  holds  I^ear's  arm, 
Edgar  disguised  as  a  madman,  sitting  on  the 
right,  Kent  who  is  crouching,  Gloster  with  a 
torch  and  I^ear  in  the  center.  I^ear's  soul  is 
stamped  in  his  face.  His  outward  form  befits 
the  inner  spirit  which  feels  what  Shakespeare 
represents  him  as  saying  : 

"  The  tempest  in  my  mind 
Doth  from  my  senses  take  all  feeling  else, 
Save  what  beats  there.— Filial  ingratitude  ! 
Is  it  not  as  this  mouth  should  tear  this  hand 
For  lifting  food  to't?— But  I  will  punish  home  :— 
No  I  will  weep  no  more. — In  such  a  night 
To  shut  me  out  1  — Pour  on  ;  I  will  endure  :— 
In  such  a  night  as  this  ! 


VII. 


WEST'S  REI.IGIOUS  PICTURES. 

"  What,  let  us  ask,  in  the  first  place,  was  the  task 
appointed  for  the  fine  arts  on  the  threshold  of  the  modern 
world?  They  had  before  all  things  to  give  form  to  the 
ideas  evolved  by  Christianity  and  to  embody  a  class  of 
emotions  unknown  to  the  ancients." — Symonds. 

IN  every  great  picture  there  are  two  elements. 
There  is  the  subject  matter  and  the  technic, 
the  idea  and  its  expression.  Of  these  two 
elements,  the  idea  or  sentiment  sought  to  be 
embodied  is  the  more  important.  The  average 
man  will  agree  with  Coleridge  of  whom  it  is 
told  that  he  would  sometimes  say  after  looking 
at  a  painting,  There  is  no  use  in  stopping  at 
this,  for  I  see  the  painter  had  no  idea,  It  is 
mere  technical  drawing."  While  we  agree 
with  Coleridge  in  valuing  most  the  idea  of  a 
picture,  there  ought  to  be  no  war  between  the 
idea  and  its  execution.  For  in  proportion  as 
a  painter  values  the  thought  he  wishes  to 
embody,  in  that  proportion,  he  will  spare  no 


West's  Religious  Pictures  73 

pains  in  making  his  technic  perfect.  No  paint- 
ing can  be  called  great  unless  it  have  both 
elements  in  the  highest  degree.  It  must  have 
a  great  theme  and  it  must  be  greatly  executed. 
But  the  first  place  belongs  to  the  soul  or  theme 
of  a  picture.  What  helped  most  to  place  the 
chief  stress  on  the  idea  in  a  work  of  art  was 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  to  the  world. 
Its  message  was  of  such  moment  as  to  furnish 
a  new  problem  to  artists.  Symonds,  in  his 
Renaissance  in  Italy,"  very  strikingly  illus- 
trates this  problem  by  asking  why  it  was  that 
Christian  artists  gave  up  sculpture  and  adopted 
painting  ?  For  sculpture  had  been  the  charac- 
teristic art  of  un-Christian  Greece,  while  paint- 
ing became  the  characteristic  art  of  Christian 
Italy.  In  substance  the  reason  he  gives  for  the 
change  is  because  Christian  ideas  demanded  the 
chief  place  over  mere  technic.  The  Greek  life 
gloried  in  the  beauty  of  the  body,  in  the  happy 
life  of  this  present  world.  Sculpture  with  its 
composure  and  its  capacity  to  represent  a  per- 
fect body  was  adapted  to  express  the  joyous 
life  of  the  Greeks.    But  between  the  best  days 


74  Wesfs  Religious  Pictures 

of  Greek  art  and  the  best  days  of  Italian  art, 
the  new  force  of  Christianit}^  which  had  come 
into  the  world,  taught  men  to  despise  the  body 
and  this  present  world,  or  rather  to  value  them 
less  than  the  life  of  the  future  and  the  struggles 
of  the  spirit.  Christianity  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  joyous  Greek  life.  It  taught  men  to 
look  within,  to  center  their  attention  on  the 
soul  rather  than  on  the  body.  The  problem, 
therefore,  set  the  Italian  artist  was  to  portray 
the  beauty  of  the  soul  not  the  beauty  of  the 
body,  to  picture  the  soul  in  its  struggles,  aspi- 
rations, longings  and  achievements,  to  illus- 
trate the  spiritual  rather  than  the  physical 
nature  of  man .  When  the  Italian  artist  began 
this  task  he  found  sculpture  incapable  of 
expressing  the  conceptions  of  life  to  which 
Christianity  gave  birth.  For,  as  Hawthorne 
expresses  it,  in  any  sculptural  subject  there 
ought  to  be  a  moral  standstill  since  there 
must  of  necessity  be  a  physical  one.  Other- 
wise it  is  like  flinging  a  block  of  marble  up 
into  the  air  and  by  some  trick  of  enchantment 
causing  it  to  stick  there.    You  feel  that  it 


West's  Religious  Pictures  75 

ought  to  come  down  and  are  dissatisfied  with 
it  that  it  does  not  obey  the  natural  law."  To 
painting  there  is  no  similar  objection,  Symonds 
goes  on  to  show,  for  painting,  with  its  color 
and  shadow,  its  perspective,  its  grouping,  its 
play  of  feature,  its  landscapes,  and  their  sym- 
pathy with  human  nature,  its  power  to  express 
emotion,  became  the  art  of  Italy  because  it 
was  capable  of  expressing  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Greek  hero  of  necessity  had  a 
vigorous  body  and  could  be  represented  in 
sculpture.  The  Christian  hero,  like  Stephen 
could  be  a  hero  and  steadfast  unto  death,  with- 
out any  physical  charm.  The  struggle  with 
him  was  within  his  own  soul.  His  spiritual 
heroism  could  be  best  represented  by  painting. 
The  Greek  art  while  not  unspiritual  yet  rejoiced 
in  physical  beauty.  Christian  art,  at  its  best, 
while  not  despising  physical  beauty  made  it 
Secondary  and  rejoiced  in  soul  beauty. 

The  problem  of  the  Christian  artist,  so  well 
and  fully  treated  by  Symonds,  Benjamin  West 
understood  and  accepted  as  his  own.  That  he 
understood  it,  is  seen  first  of  all,  from  his 


76  Wesfs  Religious  Pictures 

lectures  on  art.  The  foregoing  remarks  fairly 
represent  and  may  be  taken  as  a  brief  summary 
of  the  whole  spirit  of  his  numerous  and 
lengthy  lectures  delivered  as  the  President  of 
the  Royal  Academy,  to  its  students.  That 
he  understood  this  problem  may  be  seen  also 
from  the  number  of  his  religious  paintings. 
He  painted  the  entire  history  of  revealed 
religion,  in  thirty-eight  pictures,  painted  for 
the  King's  Chapel  at  Windsor  where  they  are 
still  to  be  seen.  His  merit  as  a  religious 
painter  may  best  be  tested  by  placing  one  of 
these  pictures,  his  "Last  Supper,"  side  by 
side  with  two  acknowledged  masterpieces  which 
deal  with  the  same  subject.  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
and  Andrea  del  Sarto  have  each  left  us  a 
picture  of  the '  *  Last  Supper . '  *  These  three  pic- 
tures represent  the  same  moment  of  time,  the 
moment  when  the  disciples  asked  one  by  one, 
"  Is  it  I  ?  "  But  each  painter  gives  a  different 
interpretation  to  the  question,  which  may  be 
taken  to  represent  any  one  of  several  feel- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  men  who  asked  it .  Da 
Vinci  in  his  picture  thinks  it  was  spoken  in 


West's  Religious  Pictures  77 

protest.  The  disciples  asked,  Is  it  I  ?  "  in  a 
tone  of  indignant  protest  against  Christ's  insin- 
uation that  one  of  them  would  betray  him. 
Da  Vinci  makes  them  show  their  feeling  of 
protest  by  the  position  of  their  hands.  His 
picture  becomes  a  secondary  study  of  the 
language  of  the  hand. 

Del  Sarto,  m  his  picture,  thinks  the  question, 
' '  Is  it  I  ?  "  was  asked  in  the  spirit  of  self- 
examination,  in  which  the  disciples  put  the 
question  to  themselves  rather  than  to  Christ 
and  each  looked  into  his  own  heart  to  see  if  he 
were  capable  of  such  a  deed.  Del  Sarto  makes 
the  disciples  express  their  feeling  by  the  posi- 
tion of  their  feet.  His  picture  is  a  study  of 
the  language  of  the  feet. 

West  makes  the  disciples,  in  asking,  Is  it 
I?  "  express  not  one  common  emotion,  as  Da 
Vinci  and  Del  Sarto  did,  but  the  individual 
feeling  and  attitude  of  the  disciples  to  the 
Master.  He  represents  the  confusion  hinted 
at  in  lyuke's  report,  "and  they  began  to  in- 
quire among  themselves  which  of  them  it  was, 
that  should  do  this  thing."    He  makes  them 


78  Wesfs  Religious  Pictures 


express  their  feelings  by  their  faces.  His  pic- 
ture becomes  a  study  of  the  language  of  the 
human  face. 

More  particularly,  West's  conception  of 
Judas  may  be  compared  to  that  of  Del  Sarto. 
Del  Sarto 's  Judas  is  in  keeping  with  the  point 
of  view  of  his  picture  and  further  illustrates  it. 
He  puts  the  key  of  Judas  character  in  his 
face.  He  does  not  represent  him  as  a  hardened 
criminal,  but  his  wonderful  face  is  the  face  of 
a  sensitive  soul,  who  is  capable  of  great  good 
or  great  evil  according  as  his  love  was  well  or 
ill  received.  It  is  the  face  of  one  who  might 
have  asked  himself  the  question  all  his  life 
long,  "Is  it  I?  "  Which  of  these  two  ten- 
dencies in  any  nature  is  at  last  to  have  the 
upper  hand?  West  represents  him  as  the 
already  hardened  criminal,  as  the  envious,  dis- 
honest and,  at  last, baffled  and  exposed  treasurer 
of  the  little  band,  just  about  to  go  out,  as 
represented  by  the  picture,  into  the  night,  his 
congenial  element. 

The  verdict  of  the  world  does  not  give 
West's  picture  a  place  beside  Da  Vinci's  or 


West's  Religious  Pictures  79 

Del  Sarto's,  but  that  he  understood  the  task 
set  to  him  and  met  it  up  to  the  measure  of  his 
ability  none  can  doubt. 

That  West  understood  the  problem  of  the 
Christian  artist,  is  perhaps  best  illustrated  by 
his  picture,  Christ  rejected,"  a  cut  of  which 
is  here  given.  It  was  once  owned  by  Mr. 
Harrison,  of  Philadelphia,  but  is  now  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  This  pic- 
ture is  what  West  called  an  epic  of  Christ's 
trial  and  death."  In  it,  as  he  said,  "he  at- 
tempted, a  delineation  of  nearly  the  whole  scale 
of  human  passions  from  the  basest  to  those  that 
partake  most  of  the  divine  nature."  A  study 
of  the  picture  shows  that  he  put  on  canvas 
every  fact  which  the  four  Evangelists  record, 
in  connection  with  Christ's  trial. 

On  the  left  of  the  picture  are  the  Roman 
soldiers  who  have  Jesus  in  Custody.  They 
bear  the  standard  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius, 
thus  showing  the  date  of  the  events.  At  their 
head  is  the  Centurion  with  his  family.  Next 
to  him  is  Christ,  whom  West  said  he  tried  to 
represent  as  showing  divine  composure  and 


8o  West's  Religious  Pictures 

sustained  by  the  thought  of  the  grandeur  of 
the  end  for  which  He  came  into  the  world. 
In  a  position  of  humiliation,  yet  triumphant, 
just  as  Sodoma  in  his  "  Christ  tied  to  pillar," 
represents  Him.  Next  to  Christ  is  Pilate.  The 
wreath  of  laurel  on  his  head  shows  him  to  be 
the  Roman  Emperor's  representative.  He  is 
in  the  act  of  asking  the  people:  Shall  I 
release  unto  yon  this  man  or  Barabbas  ? ' ' 
Next  to  him  is  the  High  Priest  Caiaphas,  who 
is  the  most  spirited  figure  in  the  group.  He 
is  in  the  act  of  crying  :  '  *  We  have  no  King  but 
Caesar  !  Away  with  him  !  Crucify  him  !  ' '  Be- 
hind the  High  Priest  is  a  mob  of  people,  who 
are  discussing  the  event  and  revealing  their 
feelings  by  looks  and  gestures.  In  the  front 
of  this  mob  stand  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who 
bore  a  tender  love  for  Christ,  James  the  I^ess, 
a  young  man  who  manifests  great  anxiety  for 
the  outcome  of  the  trial,  and  Peter,  who,  hav- 
ing denied  his  Master  and  wept  bitterly,  has 
returned.  On  the  extreme  right  of  this  central 
line  of  figures  is  Barabbas,  the  murderer  and 
two  thieves,  attended  by  the  officers  who  have 


Wesfs  Religious  Pictures  8i 

just  brought  them  from  confinement.  On  the 
left  of  the  foreground  sits  the  executioner,  on 
the  cross.  Back  of  him  are  two  soldiers  wait- 
ing for  further  commands.  In  front  of  him 
are  two  boys,  to  whom  he  explains  the  imple- 
ments of  execution,  illustrating  his  remarks  by 
showing  them  where  the  nail  goes  into  the 
feet.  In  the  middle  of  the  foreground  is  Mary 
Magdalene,  who  is  so  filled  with  terror  and  so 
far  forgets  her  sex,  as  to  fall  upon  the  cross 
and  reach  out  her  arm  to  Christ.  Back  of  her 
sits  the  third  Mary  with  her  hands  clasped  in 
emotion .  Around  her  are  the  women  of  Galilee , 
who  wept  for  Christ  in  the  ' '  Via  Dolorosa  ' ' 
and  to  whom  He  said  :  ' '  Weep  not  for  me,  ye 
daughters  of  Israel,  but  rather  weep  for  your- 
selves." In  the  midst  of  these,  stands  John 
the  beloved  disciple,  supporting  the  mother 
of  Jesus.  This  act  anticipates  what  Christ 
said  to  him  on  the  cross:  ' '  Behold  thy  mother ! ' ' 
and  to  her:  "Woman  behold  thy  son!  "  thus 
commending  His  mother  to  John's  especial 
care.  In  the  central  gallery  is  Herod  with  his 
men  of  court  and  war.    With  him  is  Pilate's 


82  West's  Religious  Pictures 

wife.  Her  presence  with  Herod  represents 
the  reconciliation  between  Herod  and  Pilate, 
which  the  trial  of  Jesus  had  brought  about. 
She  is  present  also  because  she  had  suffered 
many  things  in  a  dream  on  account  of  this  just 
person.  The  preparation  for  the  scourging 
and  crucifixion  is  indicated  by  the  man  who 
is  removing  Christ's  robe  and  the  man  back  of 
him,  who  holds  the  scourge  in  his  hands. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  artist  tries  to 
portray  "  the  whole  scale  of  human  passions, 
by  putting  all  the  circumstances  of  Christ's 
trial  in  one  picture.  This  is  his  usual  fault  of 
attempting  too  much.  One  or  two  human 
passions  would  be  enough  for  one  canvas. 
Raphael's  technic  is  remarkable  for  one  reason 
among  others,  because  the  paint  on  his  can- 
vasses is  so  thin.  West's  pictures  would  be 
greater,  if  he  too  had  spared  his  paint  and 
made  the  figures  in  his  pictures  fewer. 

But  this  picture  is  undoubted  one  of  West's 
best.  And  one  element  of  its  greatness  is  the 
fact,  that  the  chief  figure  in  the  painting  is 
not  Christ,  but  the  High  Priest.    This  shows 


Wesfs  Religious  Pictures  83 

West's  insight  in  that  he  grasped  one  of  the 
chief  revelations  of  Calvary.  "  On  that  day 
human  hands  frantically  strove  to  destroy 
human  hope.  Men  would  have  killed  God  if 
hate,  blindness,  greed  and  cowardice  could 
have  done  it.  They  turned  with  rage  on  the 
one  Helper  among  all  the  helpers  who  had  not 
only  light  for  the  mind  but  life  for  the  souL 
And  the  most  awful  aspect  of  this  denial  and 
crucifixion  of  the  Divine,  lay  in  the  fact  that 
the  Roman  was  only  the  executioner  of  the 
will  of  the  Jew.  Christ  was  rejected  not  by 
the  world  but  by  the  Church .  Not  by  moral  out- 
casts, but  by  Priests,  Pharisees,  and  Scribes." 
One  of  the  significant  features  of  the  rejection 
of  Christ  is  the  light  which  it  throv/s  on  the 
capacity  of  the  human  heart  to  sin,  and  West 
has  rightly  so  represented  it  in  this  picture. 


VIII. 

WEST'S  LESSER  HISTORICAL  SCENES. 


TUDY  your  Plutarch  and  paint,"  was 


<J  the  advice  given  by  David,  the  great 
Prench  classicist  to  his  pupil  Gros.  With- 
out the  advice  of  a  great  teacher.  West,  as 
early  as  his  Philadelphia  days,  began  the 
study  of  Plutarch.  And  if  West  had  been 
asked  to  make  a  list  of  the  books  which  had 
most  influenced  him,  Plutarch's  Lives,  would 
have  stood  near  the  head  of  the  list.  He 
was  one  of  Plutarch's  men,"  has  frequently 
been  said  at  the  funeral  of  great  statesmen 
because  his  character  has  matched  the  charac- 
ters of  the  men  whose  life  story  Plutarch  has 
so  well  told.  In  a  real  sense  West  may  be 
said  to  be  "  one  of  Plutarch's  men."  For  it 
was  Plutarch  who  suggested  to  West  to  attempt 
historical  composition  and  what  Plutarch's 


"  To  learn  not  only  by  a  comet's  rush, 
But  a  rose's  birth."— BROWNING. 


West's  Lesser  Historical  Scenes  85 

genius  did  with  the  pen,  by  portraying  the 
heroic  and  noble  traits  of  human  nature  in 
the  lives  of  great  men,  West  attempted  to  do 
with  the  brush,  in  his  historical  pictures. 
West  was  very  fond  of  selecting  a  romantic  or 
touching  or  characteristic  event  in  the  life  of 
a  great  man  and  making  it  the  subject  of  a 
picture.  He  had  a  genius  for  selecting  such 
subjects.  As  an  artist,  one  of  his  great  aims 
was  to  be  a  story  teller.  Of  this  type  of  pic- 
ture he  has  left  us  a  great  number,  some  of 
which  are  well  known  and  worthy  of  mention. 
The  picture  of  ' '  Alfred  the  Great  dividing 
his  last  loaf  with  the  pilgrim,"  is  a  good 
illustration  of  this  class.  The  picture  repre- 
sents a  characteristic  scene  in  the  life  of  a  man 
who  was  perhaps  England's  greatest  king. 
So  great  has  been  his  influence  on  England 
that  in  1849,  his  birthday  was  celebrated  after 
a  lapse  of  a  thousand  years  and  next  year  the 
thousandth  anniversary  of  his  death  will  be 
celebrated  by  magnificent  ceremonies  at  Win- 
chester, the  old  royal  residence.  Alfred  was 
the  creator  of  English  literature.    He  founded 


86  Wesfs  Lesser  Historical  Scenes 

English  public -schools.  He  made  England  a 
united  country  for  the  first  time.  He  gave 
her  the  first  conception  of  national  law.  He 
was  the  first  ruler  of  Christendom  who  put 
aside  every  personal  ambition  to  devote  him- 
self wholly  to  the  welfare  of  those  he  ruled. 
It  is  the  moral  grandeur  of  his  character  that 
constitutes  his  real  greatness.  "  So  long  as  I 
have  lived,"  he  wrote,  I  have  striven  to  live 
worthily. "  ' '  Day  and  night, ' '  says  his  biogra- 
pher, "he  was  busied  in  the  correction  of 
local  injustice,  for  in  that  whole  kingdom  the 
poor  had  no  helpers  or  few,  save  the  King 
himself. ' '  He  was  on  intimate  terms  with  his 
people  and  they  loved  him.  When  the  country 
was  overrun  by  Danes  and  Alfred  was  a  wan- 
derer over  the  moors,  he  was  said  to  have 
entered  a  peasant's  hut,  and  to  have  been 
bidden  by  the  housewife,  who  did  not  recog- 
nize him,  to  turn  the  cakes  which  were  baking 
on  the  hearth.  The  young  king  did  as  he  was 
bidden,  but  in  the  sad  thoughts  which  came 
over  him,  he  forgot  his  task  and  bore  in  amused 
silence,  the  scolding  of  the  good  wife  who 


West^s  Lesser  Historical  Scenes  87 

found  her  cakes  spoiled  on  her  return.  It  was 
at  such  a  time  as  this  that  he  divided  his  last 
loaf  with  the  pilgrim  whose  need  was  no  greater 
than  his  own.  West  has  thus  taken  a  charac- 
teristic and  beautiful  act  in  the  life  of  the  great 
king  to  commemorate  by  his  picture. 

Another  picture  of  this  class  is,  "  Sir  Philip 
Sidney  giving  a  cup  of  water  to  a  dying  sol- 
dier. ' '  The  story  of  how  Sidney  with  a  mortal 
wound  received  at  the  battle  of  Zutphen  and 
fainting  from  loss  of  blood,  refused  the  draught 
offered  to  his  own  lips  in  order  to  give  it  to  a 
dying  man  whose  necessities,  he  said,  were 
greater  than  his  own,  is  too  well  known  to 
need  repetition.  West's  picture  helps  to  keep 
alive  the  memory  of  a  characteristic  act  in  the 
life  of  the  English  model  of  knightly  virtues. 
Sidney's  act  illustrates  his  own  definition  of  a 
true  gentleman,  ''a  man  with  high  erected 
thoughts  seated  in  a  heart  of  courtesy." 

Another  illustration  of  this  type  of  picture 
is,  "  Lord  Clive  receiving  the  Duana  from  the 
hand  of  the  Mogul."  Duana  is  the  Italian 
form  of  the  word  given  in  our  dictionaries  as 


88         Wesfs  Lesser  Historical  Scenes 

dewani,  the  ofi&ce  of  a  dewan  or  finance  minis- 
ter especially  as  vested  in  the  East  India  Com- 
pany by  letters  delivered  to  Clive.  The  picture 
is  designed  to  commemorate  the  service  Clive 
did  for  England  in  India. 

Robert  Clive  went  to  India  as  a  clerk  in  the 
East  India  Company,  whose  business  opera- 
tions at  that  time  were  not  large.  The  French, 
who  were  trying  to  expel  Englishmen  from 
India,  besieged  Madras  in  1746  and  took  the 
English  merchants  and  clerks  prisoners .  Clive , 
who  was  among  them,  escaped  in  disguise. 
He  did  not  return  to  his  desk  as  a  clerk,  but 
joined  a  company  of  soldiers.  In  1751,  this 
young  unknown  clerk,  now  a  private  soldier, 
proposed  a  daring  scheme,  by  which  he,  with 
a  few  hundred  English  and  Sepoys  gained  a 
signal  victory  over  thousands  of  French  and 
their  Indian  allies,  at  Arcot. 

Clive 's  broken  health  now  brought  him  to 
England.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years' 
War  he  returned  to  India  as  an  officer.  He 
had  only  been  in  Madras  a  few  months  when 
he  was  stirred  to  action  by  a  crime  which  is 


Wesfs  Lesser  Historical  Scenes  89 

one  of  the  notable  monuments  to  ' '  man 's 
inliumanity  to  man."  Surajah  Dowlah,  the 
Master  of  Bengal,  jealous  of  the  wealth  of  the 
English  traders,  and  roused  by  the  French, 
seized  Fort  William,  afterwards  Calcutta,  took 
its  settlers  as  prisoners,  and  thrust  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  them  into  a  small  prison  called  the 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  The  guard  room  was 
hardly  twenty  feet  square.  In  the  heat  of  an 
Indian  summer,  and  in  the  madness  of  thirst, 
the  prisoners  trampled  each  other  to  death. 
The  next  morning  only  twenty-three  remained 
alive.  At  the  news  of  the  crime  Clive  sailed 
with  one  thousand  Englishmen  and  two  thou- 
sand Sepoys,  and  with  this  small  force  he  met 
an  army  of  fifty  thousand  foot  and  fourteen 
thousand  horse  on  the  plains  of  Plassey.  On 
the  eve  of  battle  a  council  of  war  counselled 
retreat  because  the  odds  were  too  great .  Clive' s 
courage  did  not  falter.  He  ordered  an  attack. 
His  small  force  came  off  complete  victors.  The 
victory  of  Plassey,  under  Clive,  gave  India  to 
England.  West's  picture  commemorates  a 
triumphant  scene  in  the  life  of  a  man  whose 


90         West's  Lesser  Historical  Scejies 

unique  bravery  did  so  much  for  his  native  land. 
A  better  monument  to  Clive's  memory  than 
West's  picture,  is  Robert  Browning's  poem, 
'*  Clive."  The  poem  gives  a  true  portrait  of 
the  man.  The  stirring  incident  in  Clive's  life, 
told  by  Browning,  shows  him  to  be  a  man 
whose  only  fear  was  the  fear  of  meanness. 

The  picture,  selected  as  an  illustration  of 
this  class, — a  cut  of  which  is  here  given — is 

Alexander  and  his  Physician."  The  scene 
represented  in  this  picture  West  got  from  Plu- 
tarch .  Alexander  the  Great  was  sick  in  Cilicia 
during  one  of  his  earlier  campaigns  for  Asiatic 
conquest.  The  fate  of  the  world  seemed  to 
pivot  on  his  recovery.  Because  of  the  magni- 
tude of  the  risk  involved  and  of  the  suspicions 
of  intrigue  on  every  side,  the  Macedonian  phy- 
sicians refused  to  assume  responsibility  for  his 
treatment.  But  Philip,  an  Acarnanian  physi- 
cian, loved  Alexander,  and  was  loved  in  turn. 
He  came  to  the  King's  bedside.  Philip  resolved 
to  care  for  Alexander  at  every  risk  to  himself. 
Meantime,  Parmenio,  a  jealous  admirer  of 
Alexander,  had  written  from  the  camp  saying, 


West's  Lesser  Historical  Scenes  91 

that  the  physician  Philip  had  been  bribed  by 
Darius  to  poison  him,  and  warning  him  to 
beware  of  Philip.  Alexander  read  the  letter, 
showed  it  to  no  one  and  put  it  under  his  pillow. 
When  Philip  proffered  the  medicine  he  had 
prepared,  Alexander  looked  up  into  the  face  of 
his  friend  with  a  cheerful  expression  of  trust. 
He  drained  the  cup  without  a  question,  having 
handed  the  letter  to  Philip  that  he  might  read 
it  in  the  meantime  and  learn  how  a  friend 
could  trust.  West's  picture  represents  Alex- 
ander taking  the  medicine  and  Philip  reading 
the  letter.  The  picture  illustrates  one  of  the 
essential  elements  of  a  true  friendship, — its 
perfect  trust. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  pictures  of 
the  type  which  West  painted.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  his  skill  in  their  execution,  it  must 
be  granted  that  as  a  story-teller,  he  has  done 
what  Plutarch  has  done,  he  has  helped  to  create 
faith  in  the  capacity  of  human  nature  for  noble 
deeds.  He  has  taught  us  to  be  governed  by 
our  ' '  admirations  not  by  our  disgusts."  And 
by  selecting  the  little  commonplace  incidents 


92  West's  Lesser  Historical  Sceiies 

in  the  lives  of  great  men  as  the  subjects  for 
his  pictures,  he  taught  us  to  emphasize  such 
incidents  as  the  true  tests  of  a  man's  worth. 
* '  Great  occasions  rally  great  principles  and 
brace  the  mind  to  a  lofty  bearing,  a  bearing 
that  is  even  above  itself.  But  trials  that  make 
no  occasion  at  all,  leave  it  to  show  the  good- 
ness and  beauty  it  has  in  its  own  disposition." 
West  thus  set  himself  against  the  belief,  held 
by  eminent  French  artists  of  his  day,  that 
'  *  the  common  round  of  daily  task ' '  was  not  a 
fit  subject  for  art.  By  his  lesser  historical 
scenes,  West  helped,  even  if  a  little,  the  new 
revolution  in  the  art  of  this  century,  by  which 
artists  as  well  as  other  men  have  learned — 

"  To  have  to  do  with  nothing  but  the  true 
The  good,  the  eternal— and  these,  not  alone 
In  the  main  current  of  the  general  life. 
But  small  experiences  of  every  day 
Concerns  of  the  particular  hearth  and  home  ; 
To  learn  not  only  by  a  comefs  rush 
But  a  rose's  birth,— not  by  the  grandeur,  God 
But  the  comfort,  Christ." 


IX. 


WEST'S  GREATER  HISTORICAL 


'hk  artist,"  said  Goethe,    is  conditioned 


1  on  the  man."  Water  cannot  rise 
above  its  level.  And  no  work  of  art  is  greater 
than  the  man  who  produced  it.  As  one  looks 
at  West's  paintings  he  sees  that  everything  is 
correct,  chaste  and  pleasing,  but  they  lack 
strength  and  the  free  play  of  genius.  His 
work,  with  all  his  care  for  workmanship  and 
diligence  for  perfection,  is  lacking  in  some- 
thing, a  something  that  is  needed  to  give  it 
vitality.  We  call  it  the  secret  of  art,  a  spirit- 
ual passion,  magical,  vague,  and  yet  strong. 
It  is  hard  to  define,  but  we  know  it  by  its 
presence  or  absence.  A  work  of  art,  be  it  a 
poem  or  picture,  if  it  have  not  this  secret  may 
charm  us  for  a  moment,  but  soon  it  leaves  us 
as  cold  as  before. 


SCENES. 


Ah,  but  a  man's  reach  should  exceed  his  grasp, 
Or  what's  a  heaven  for?  "—Browning. 


94        Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

To  understand  the  absence  of  this  secret  in 
West's  work  we  must  look  at  the  man.  For 
his  work  is  a  revelation  of  his  own  life.  He 
had  the  misfortune  to  be  without  suffering. 
His  experience  brought  no  trials  to  develop 
and  strengthen  his  spirituality.  He  was  too 
early  successful.  The  Kings  exclusive  patron- 
age was  not  a  blessing  but  a  misfortune.  His 
nature  was  not  intense  but  negative.  His  life 
was  regular,  orderly,  industrious  and  success- 
ful. His  work  vv^as  the  natural  fruit  of  such  a 
life.  It  has  a  body  but  no  soul.  A  beautiful 
body  indeed,  but  dead.  For  an  illustration  of 
this  estimate  of  West,  compare  his  work  with 
that  of  Millet.  The  secret  of  any  great  life, 
and  any  great  work  as  well,  is  love,  sympathy, 
suffering,  struggle  for  truth,  spiritual  reality. 
These  elements  Millet  has.  They  are  what 
West  has  not.  There  is  the  same  difference 
between  West  and  Millet  that  there  is  between 
Haydn  and  Mozart.  The  same  difference  in 
their  lives.   The  same  difference  in  their  work. 

The  secret  of  a  great  work  of  art,  which 
Millet  has  and  West  has  not,  may  be  stated  in 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  95 

a  still  different  way.  It  is  what  Carlyle  calls 
' '  sincerity. ' '  In  his  essay  on  Burns  we  see 
that  he  meant  by  sincerity,  the  power  to  speak 
freely  and  fearlessly  the  personal  convictions 
of  his  own  heart  untrammeled  by  convention- 
alities. This  is  a  rare  quality  in  poet  or 
painter.  Burns  and  Browning  are  among  the 
few  such  poets.  Millet  was  such  a  painter. 
Rose  Kingsley  in  her  excellent  account  of  the 
struggle  between  the  Classicists  and  Romanti- 
cists in  France,  sums  it  up  by  saying,  What 
we  learn  from  the  spectacle,  deeply  interesting, 
deeply  instructive,  deeply  edifying  in  its  his- 
tory and  achievements,  is,  that  the  only  thing 
in  art  that  really  matters,  the  only  thing  that 
bears  weight,  the  only  thing  that  leaves  its 
mark  on  the  age,  and  on  all  ages  to  come,  is 
individual  genius — the  mind  of  the  one  man 
who  is  great  enough  to  stand  alone,  to  be  him- 
self, to  give  to  the  world  that  message  which 
is  in  him  to  give. ' '  Whenever  a  painter's  feel- 
ing about  an  experience  or  object  in  life  or 
nature  has  become  living  passion  of  his  own 
soul  and  he  paints  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 


96        Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

you  see  what  he  sees  and  feel  what  he  feels, 
then  it  is  a  true  work  oi  art.  He  paints  not 
from  hearsay  but  from  experience.  The  pas- 
sion he  portrays  first  glows  in  his  own  heart. 
If  '  *  every  good  book  is  the  life  blood  of  its 
author's  spirit,"  so  ought  a  painting  to  be.  If 
a  painting  is  to  be  called  great  it  must  be 
painted  according  to  the  dictum  of  Horace, 
"If  you  wish  me  to  weep,  your  own  heart  must 
first  be  wrung."  While  West  broke  away 
from  conventionality  in  matters  of  dress,  the 
subjects  of  his  paintings  had  not  become  pas- 
sions of  his  own  soul. 

But  because  West  falls  short  when  compared 
with  the  great  world  painters,  this  does  not 
mean  that  he  was  not  a  good  or  even  a  great 
painter.  He  will  be  known  in  history  as  a 
historical  painter.  He  did  for  historical  paint- 
ing in  his  day  what  Watts  has  done  for  por- 
trait painting  in  ours,  he  made  it  a  new  and  a 
real  thing.  Perhaps  the  first  necessity  in  any 
great  work  of  art  is  to  have  a  great  subject. 
West's  rare,  good  judgment  always  selected  a 
great  theme  for  his  paintings,  and  if  the  selec- 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  97 

tion  of  good  themes  would  make  a  great 
painter,  West  would  stand  among  the  best. 
He  always  selected,  for  his  historical  pictures, 
some  crucial,  epoch-making  event  in  history, 
which  men  would  always  care  to  remember 
and  which  his  pictures  would  help  to  make 
vivid.  To  the  truth  of  this  statement  a  few  oi 
his  well  known  historical  paintings  bear  ample 
testimony. 

Among  them  should  be  mentioned  his  picture 
Penn's  treaty  with  the  Indians,"  now  in  the 
old  State  House  at  Philadelphia.  The  picture 
commemorates  an  event  as  beautiful  as  it  is 
important  in  its  consequences  through  all  the 
history  of  the  new  colony  in  America .  Voltaire 
said,  that  the  treaty  which  was  concluded  be- 
tween the  Indians  and  William  Penn  was  the 
first  public  contract  which  connected  the  old 
and  new  worlds  together.  And,  though  not 
ratified  by  oaths,  is  still  the  only  treaty  that 
has  never  been  broken. 

Another  picture  in  point,  is  West's  "  Crom- 
well dissolving  the  long  Parliament."  The 
Parliament  was  called  ' '  long  ' '  because  after 


98         Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

it  was  convened  by  Charles  I.,  it  held  almost 
continuous  sessions  for  twenty  years.  During 
the  latter  part  of  this  time  Colonel  Pride 
pufged  it  of  all  members  who  would  not  bring 
the  King  to  justice.  It  then  numbered  about 
sixty  members  and  was  called  in  derision  the 
Rump  Parliament.  It  was  the  Rump  Parlia- 
ment that  Cromwell  dissolved  with  his  soldiers. 
No  man  in  English  history  is  more  misunder- 
stood than  is  Cromwell.  On  one  hand  he  is 
lauded  as  a  patriot  and  saviour  of  his  country, 
on  the  other  he  is  denounced  as  a  hypocrite 
and  betrayer  of  the  Puritan  cause.  To  this 
day  his  place  in  history  is  not  fixed. 

And  no  act  in  his  career  is  more  discussed 
than  his  dissolution  of  Parliament.  After  the 
long  struggle  of  the  Puritan  for  liberty  and 
reform,  in  which  Cromwell  played  a  leading 
part  at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  "  Old  Iron- 
sides," who  trusted  in  God  and  kept  their 
powder  dry  ' '  and  who  were  never  defeated  in 
battle,  and  when  Cromwell  was  now  the  real 
dictator  of  England,  he  needed  a  Parliament 
to  carry  out  the  reforms  for  which  the  Puritans 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  99 

had  shed  their  blood.  The  Rump  Parliament 
refused  to  do  it  for  them  and  for  all  their  fight- 
ing offered  only  a  piece  of  paper.  Cromwell 
said  "  No."  He  entered  Parliament  at  the 
head  of  his  soldiers,  as  West's  picture  repre- 
sents him  as  doing,  expelled  the  members  by 
force,  locked  the  doors  and  put  the  keys  in  his 
pocket.  During  the  night  a  wag  nailed  a 
placard  on  the  door  bearing  the  inscription  in 
large  letters,  '  *  This  house  to  let,  unfurnished. ' ' 
Cromwell's  act  was  against  all  law  and  order 
and  precedent,  but  in  the  judgment  of  many, 
a  necessity  in  a  good  cause.  Carlyle,  his  first 
great  defender,  thinks  it  was  a  harsh  measure 
but  justified.  John  Milton,  the  poet,  who  was 
a  clerk  in  the  Rump  Parliament  and  saw  every- 
thing at  close  hand,  commends  him  for  it.  On 
the  other  hand  many  look  on  this  act  as  the 
turning  point,  the  "  Crossing  of  the  Rubicon," 
in  his  well  deserved  political  downfall.  West's 
good  judgment  has  thus  siezed  upon,  for  the 
subject  of  his  picture,  a  crucial  event  in  the 
life  of  a  great  man  and  the  history  of  a  good 
cause.    Among  West's  greater  historical  pic- 


loo       West's  Greater  Histo?ical  Sce?ies 

tures,  "The  battle  of  I,a  Hogue"  holds  a 
prominent  place.  The  scene  represents  the 
battle  which  was  fought  in  1692,  off  Cape  I^a 
Hogue,  a  headland  on  the  English  channel,  in 
Normandy,  France,  between  fifty  French  ves- 
sels under  Tourville  and  ninty  vessels,  both 
Dutch  and  English,  under  Russell.  The  French 
were  completely  beaten  and  most  of  their  vessels 
burned,  one  after  the  other,  under  the  eyes  of 
a  French  army  of  thirty  thousand. 

This  victory  for  England  was  significant 
because  it  meant  that  William  of  Orange  was 
secure  on  the  English  throne,  and  that  the  cause 
of  James  I . ,  in  whose  interest  the  French  were 
fighting,  was  dead.  This  victory  made  Eng- 
land the  mistress  of  the  seas.  West's  painting 
is  not  the  only  monument  to  this  victory.  Of 
late  years  additional  interest  has  been  added 
to  it  by  one  of  Browning's  most  popular  bal- 
lads, called  "  Herve  Riel."  The  poem  was 
first  published  in  the  Cornhill  Magazine,  in 
1 87 1,  and  is  now  familiar  to  every  school  boy. 
For  it.  Browning  received  five  hundred  dollars 
which  he  gave  to  relieve  the  suffering  in  Paris, 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  loi 

caused  by  the  Franco-German  war.  Dr.  Fur- 
nival  and  Kenneth  Grahme  have  investigated 
the  records  at  Paris  and  have  found  that  the 
brave  and  touching  story  narrated  in  the  poem 
is  a  true  one.  Herve  Riel,  a  simple  Briton 
sailor,  when  the  commanders,  after  the  defeat 
of  La  Hogue,  had  decided  to  run  the  remaining 
twenty-two  ships  on  shore  and  fire  them,  in 
order  to  save  them  from  the  English,  Herve 
Riel  stepped  forward  and  protested,  "Sirs^ 
believe  me,  there's  a  way  !  only  let  me  lead  the 
line."  He  was  given  supreme  command,  and 
right  skilfully  did  he  pilot  the  ships  through 
the  shallows  of  the  Ranee  and  save  them  for 
France. 

"Out  burst  all  with  one  accord, 
This  is  Paradise  for  Hell  ! 
Let  France,  let  France's  King 
Thank  the  man  that  did  the  thing." 

For  this  splendid  service  he  was  permitted 
to  ask  for  any  reward  he  chose  to  name.  The 
brave  Briton  wanted  no  reward  for  duty  done 
and  asked  only  for  one  whole  day's  holiday  to 
go  home  and  see  his  wife,  the  "  Belle  Aurore." 
Herve  Riel  is  one  of  the  unknown  heroes  of 


I02       Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

this  historic  battle,  to  whose  memory  Brown- 
ing's poem  is  the  best  monument. 

The  picture  of  this  class  which  is  best  known 
and  most  noteworthy  is  ' '  The  death  of  General 
Wolfe."  The  painting  represents  the  death 
of  Wolfe  at  Quebec  when  he  fought  the  French 
under  Montcalm.  It  was  a  stroke  of  origin- 
ality for  West  to  put  an  Indian  in  the  picture 
who  watches  to  see  whether  the  heroism  of 
Wolfe  equalled  that  of  his  own  race.  West 
made  a  minor  mistake  about  the  Indian's 
dress  which  he  did  not  know  he  had  made 
until  it  was  too  late  to  correct  it.  He  has 
represented  the  Indian  with  naked  feet,  and 
an  Indian  warrior  never  goes  into  battle  with- 
out his  moccasins.  The  night  before  the  battle 
Wolfe  was  reading  Gray's  ' '  Elegy ' '  and  quoted 
to  a  brother  officer  the  lines  : 

"  The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 
And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour, 
The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

I  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that  poem, 
he  said,  than  to  have  the  glory  of  beating  the 
French  to-morrow.  The  last  lines  of  this  quo- 


West's  Greater  Historical  Scenes  103 

tation  he  verified  the  next  day,  for  both  he  and 
Montcalm  died  within  a  few  hours  of  each 
other.  But  his  victory  was  won  and  this 
victory  at  Quebec  gave  America  to  England, 
broke  the  power  of  France  in  the  new  world 
and  established  the  reformed  religion  on  this 
continent.  West's  picture  of  this  scene  richly 
deserves  to  be  remembered,  for  in  it  he  made 
the  first  attempt  made  in  Kngland  to  represent 
a  modern  historical  event  exactly  as  it  occurred. 
Up  to  this  time  painters  had  painted  English 
and  French  soldiers  in  the  costume  of  antiq- 
uity, in  that  of  Greeks  and  Romans.  Most 
portrait  painters,  Gainsborough  being  a  marked 
exception,  represented  their  sitters  as  Psyches 
and  Cupids.  This  was  false  taste.  In  Kipling's 
first  novel  ' '  The  light  that  failed  ' '  occurs  a 
strong  passage,  protesting  against  the  same 
false  British  taste  against  which  West  made 
his  protest.  It  is  a  conversation  between 
Torpenhow  and  his  friend  Dick,  the  artist,  in 
which  is  contrasted  a  picture  as  it  ought  to  be 
painted,  true  to  life,  with  a  picture  that  pleases 
the  British  public.    Torpenhow  says  to  Dick, 


I04       West's  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

"You've  learnt  something  while  you  have 
been  away  (in  Egypt).  Give 'em  what  they 
know  and  when  you've  done  it  once  do  it 
again."  Dick  dragged  forward  a  canvass  laid 
face  to  the  wall.  "  Here's  a  sample  of  real  art. 
It's  going  to  be  a  facsimile  reproduction  for  a 
weekly.  I  called  it  "His  last  shot."  It's 
worked  up  from  a  little  water  color  I  made 
outside  II  Maghrib.  Well,  I  lured  my  model, 
a  beautiful  rifleman,  up  here  with  drink. 
I  drored  him  and  I  redrored  him  and  I  tre- 
drored  him,  and  I  made  him  a  flushed,  dishev- 
elled, bedevilled  scalawag,  with  his  helmet 
on  the  back  of  his  head,  and  the  living  fear  of 
death  in  his  eye  and  the  blood  oozing  out  of  a 
cut  over  his  ankle-bone.  He  wasn't  pretty 
but  was  all  soldier  and  very  much  man .  * 
I  did  him  just  as  well  at  I  knew  how,  making 
allowance  for  the  slickness  of  oils.  Then  the 
art  manager  of  that  abandoned  paper  said ,  that 
his  subscribers  wouldn't  like  it.  It  was  brutal 
and  coarse  and  violent,  man  being  naturally 
gentle  when  fighting  for  his  life.  They  wanted 
something  more  restful,  with  a  little  more 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  105 

color.  I  might  have  said  a  good  deal,  but 
you  might  as  well  talk  to  a  sheep  as  an  art 
manager.  I  took  my  "Last  shot"  back. 
Behold  the  result.  I  put  him  in  a  pretty  red 
coat,  without  a  speck  on  it.  That  is  art.  I 
polished  his  boots,  observe  the  high  light  on 
the  toe.  That  is  art.  I  cleaned  his  rifle, 
rifles  are  always  clean  on  service,  because 
that  is  art.  I  pipe-clayed  his  helmet,  pipe  clay 
is  always  used  on  active  service  and  is  indis- 
pensable to  art.  I  shaved  his  chin,  I  washed 
his  hands  and  gave  him  an  air  of  fatted  peace. 
Result,  military  tailor's  pattern-plate.  Price, 
thank  Heaven,  twice  as  much  as  for  the  first 
sketch,  which  was  moderately  decent."  Tor- 
penhow  answered  Dick's  sarcastic  yielding  to 
false  taste  by  putting  his  boot  through  the 
canvass  as  the  picture  deserved. 

It  was  just  this  false  public  taste  that  West 
resisted  and  by  resisting  restored  to  us  a  his- 
torical principle  of  great  value  in  every  other 
profession  as  well  as  in  art.  He  painted  his- 
torical scenes  in  their  natural  historical  setting 
whether  the  setting  was  pleasing  or  not,  so  it 


io6       West's  Greater  Historical  Scenes 

was  true  to  life.  He  taught  us  to  care  more 
for  the  truth  than  for  what  was  pleasing. 

West  did  not  teach  us  this  lesson  without 
some  pain  to  himself,  for,  when,  in  his  "  Death 
of  Wolfe ' '  he  attempted  to  put  modern  cos- 
tumes on  modern  men,  George  the  Third  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  said  they  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  so  bold  an  inovator. 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  the  Archbishop  called 
on  West  to  persuade  him  to  abandon  the 
attempt  and  not  ruin  his  future.  West  refused 
saying,  "  The  event  to  be  commemorated  hap- 
pened in  the  year  1758,  in  a  region  unknown 
to  the  Greeks  and  Romans  and  when  no  war- 
riors who  wore  more  classical  costume  existed. ' ' 
When  the  picture  was  finished  Reynolds  said, 
''West  has  conquered.  He  has  treated  the 
subject  as  it  ought  to  be  treated.  I  retract 
my  objections.  I  foresee  that  this  picture  will 
not  only  become  popular,  but  will  occasion  a 
revolution  in  art."  Reynolds  prophecy  has 
been  fulfilled. 

For  the  use  West  made  of  his  talents  by 
patient  toil,  for  his  romantic  history  from  a  poor 


Wesfs  Greater  Historical  Scenes  107 

unknown  lad  in  the  forests,  to  a  position  of 
the  greatest  English  painter  of  his  day  and  the 
first  great  American  painter,  but  more  especi- 
ally for  the  great  service  he  did  as  a  historical 
painter,  we  as  Americans  and  as  Pennsyl- 
vanians  and  Swarthmorians  may  be  justly 
proud. 


X. 


MRS.  BROWNING'S  DEFENCE  OF 
BENJAMIN  WEST. 

"  Others  shall  sing  the  song 
Others  shall  right  the  wrong, 
Finish  what  I  begin 
And  all  I  fail  of,  win." 


"  Ring,  bells  in  unreared  steeples 
The  joy  of  unborn  peoples, 
Sound  trumpets,  far  off  blown 
Your  triumph  is  my  own  !  " 

Whittier. 

IN  the  history  of  art,  West  will  be  remem- 
bered and.  honored  chiefly  on  account  of 
his  picture,  "The  death  of  General  Wolfe." 
Because,  by  means  of  this  picture,  he  taught 
artists  the  principle  of  historical  setting,  a 
principle  indispensable  to  art  not  only,  but 
indispensable  in  any  sphere  of  study  and  in 
-any  sphere  of  achievement,  as  well.  He  taught 
the  English  artist  that  he  must : 

"  Draw  the  thing  as  he  sees  it 
For  the  God  of  things  as  they  are." 


Mrs.  Browning' s  Defence  of  West  109 

And  we  have  not  learned  this  needed  lesson 
unless  in  our  judgment  of  West,  we  apply  to 
him,  the  historical  principle  for  which  his 
great  picture  stands.  If  we  would  rightly 
judge  any  man's  life  or  work,  we  must  look 
at  him  in  his  historical  setting  and  judge  him 
by  the  conditions  of  his  own  times.  It  is  not 
fair  to  judge  West  by  the  standards  of  to-day. 
If  a  man  is  to  serve  his  own  age,  he  must  do 
two  things.  He  must  first  of  all,  speak  in  the 
language  of  his  age  and  embody  its  ideals  and 
its  best  attainments.  This  West  did,  for  he 
was  the  leading  English  historical  painter  ot 
his  day.  This  means  that  he  spoke  home  to 
the  hearts  of  the  common  people  in  language 
they  could  understand,  and  also  that  he  stood 
among  the  first  artists  of  his  time. 

The  second  thing  he  must  do,  is  to  be  in 
advance  of  his  day,  and  endeavor  to  bring  it 
up  to  the  level  of  what  he  sees.  This  West 
also  did,  for  he  corrected  the  false  standards 
of  taste  in  England,  and  taught  English  artists 
the  true  principle  of  historical  painting. 


no     Mrs .  Brow7iing' s  Defence  of  West 

Whatever  may  be  West's  defects  as  a  pain- 
ter, it  is  evident  that  without  him  English  art 
would  not  be  what  it  now  is.  The  triumphs 
of  modern  art  are  therefore  partly  his  own. 
If  we  have  outgrown  West,  if  we  have  come 
into  larger  possessions  than  our  forefathers 
enjoyed,  it  is  only  because  we  are  standing  on 
their  shoulders.  What  we  now  possess  has 
been  made  possible  only  because  of  what  they 
did.  It  is  ingratitude  to  despise  the  rounds  of 
the  ladder  by  which  we  have  ascended.  In 
any  right  estimate  of  a  man's  work  everything 
depends  on  a  right  point  of  view.  And  the 
right  point  of  view  from  which  to  judge  West, 
may  be  most  briefly  and  most  clearly  seen  by 
means  of  a  parable. 

There  is  a  sweet  old  story  come  down  to  us, 
concerning  Cimabue,  the  father  of  modern 
painting,  and  concerning  his  great  picture, 
"The  Madonna  and  Child."  On  a  certain 
day  in  1270,  Charles  of  Anjou,  was  pass- 
ing through  Florence  and  was  permitted  to 
see  Cimabue' s  picture  in  his  studio.  The  popu- 
lace followed  the  royal  visitor.    The  Madonna 


Mrs.  Brow7ii?ig's  Defence  of  West  iii 

was  then  unveiled  for  the  first  time  and  the 
people  so  admired  it  that  they  carried  it  in 
triumphal  procession  to  the  church  of  Santa 
Maria  Novella,  where  it  now  is,  shouting  so 
joyously  that  the  quarter  of  the  city  has  ever 
since  been  called  "  Borgo  Allegri."  The  peo- 
ple shouted  for  the  picture  and  not  for  the 
King  who  accompanied  it.  This  story,  six 
hundred  years  old  has  been  preserved  for  us 
by  the  picture  of  Sir  Frederic  I^eighton,  a  cut 
of  which  is  here  given. 

I^eighton  by  his  brush  and  Mrs.  Browning 
by  her  pen  have  converted  the  story  into  a 
parable.  If  in  the  light  of  later  and  bet- 
ter work  we  are  tempted  to  underrate  and 
scorn  Cimabue's  picture,  ''we  ought  to  remem- 
ber," pleads  Mrs.  Browning,  "  that  it  was  the 
best  work  of  art  in  its  day  and  received  univer- 
sal praise."  It  is  not  fair  to  blame  Cimabue 
because  his  picture  was  not  better  than  the 
best.  He  set  a  high  standard  for  those  that 
followed  him. 

"  Let  us  also  remember,"  pleads  Mrs. 
Browning  again,  ''that  when  Cimabue  found 


112     Mrs.  Browning' s  Defence  of  West 

his  little  pupil  and  successor  Giotto,  among 
his  sheep  folds  on  a  Tuscan  hillside,  drawing 
with  boyish  art  a  sheep  upon  a  stone  and 
brought  him  to  his  Florentine  studio  to  teach 
him  art,  and  when  Giotto  soon  surpassed  his 
master,  Cimabue  was  the  first  to  rejoice." 
lycighton  in  his  picture  represents  Cimabue 
leading  the  little  Giotto  by  the  hand.  Cimabue 
was  large  enough  to  see  that  he  was  only  a 
stepping  stone  in  the  progress  of  art,  but  none 
the  less  a  necessary  step,  for  that.  We  ought, 
at  least  to  look  on  him  as  he  looked  upon  him- 
self. His  spirit  was  the  same  that  character- 
ized the  beautiful  life  of  George  Frederic 
Watts,  who  said  of  his  work:  "To  work 
with  all  the  heart's  energies,  but  also  with  all 
the  heart's  simplicity  ;  that  is  duty,  and  who- 
ever does  it  has  the  right  to  be  content,  what- 
ever be  the  result  of  his  labors.  If  I  have 
served  to  show  the  way  so  that  others  will  do 
better,  I  shall  be  satisfied,  but  I  do  not  count 
upon  my  work 's  being  found  great  in  itself. ' ' 

This  parable  has  an  exact  application  to 
Benjamin  West.    As  we  are  tempted,  from  the 


Mrs.  Browning^ s  Defence  of  West  113 

heights  of  Raphaelhood ,  to  gaze  scorn  down  on 
Cimabue,  so  are  we  tempted  to-day  from  the 
heights  of  Pre-Ralphaelitehood  in  England, 
to  gaze  down  scorn  on  West.  But  Heaven 
anoints  the  head  of  no  such  critic,  and  when 
Mrs.  Browning  and  Frederic  I^eighton  defended 
Cimabue  from  such  critics  and  such  unjust 
judgment,  they  were  defending  West  from 
later  critics  who  are  tempted  to  ' '  forget  the 
rock  whence  they  are  hewn  and  the  hole  of 
the  pit  whence  they  are  digged," 

Lest  we  forget  our  debt  to  the  workers  of 
the  past  and  in  order  to  emphasize,  by  parable 
and  picture,  the  point  of  view  from  which 
West  ought  to  be  always  judged,  Leighton's 
picture  is  here  given  and  the  passage  in  part 
is  here  quoted  from  Mrs.  Browning's  "  Casa 
Guidi  windows." 

"  By  Cimabue's  Virgin.    Bright  and  brave 

That  picture  was  accounted,  mark,  of  old, 

A  King  stood  bare  before  its  sov'ran  grace, 

A  reverent  people  shouted  to  behold 

The  picture,  not  the  King,  and  even  the  place 

Containing  such  a  miracle,  grew  bold, 

Named  the  glad  Borgo  from  that  beauteous  face 

Which  thrilled  the  artist  after  work  to  think 

His  own  ideal  Mary-smile' should  stand 

So  very  near  him,— he  within  the  brink 


114     Mrs.  Browning's  Defence  of  West 


Of  all  that  glory,  let  in  by  his  hand 

With  too  divine  a  rashness  !   Yet  none  shrink 

Who  come  to  gaze  here  now,  albeit  'twas  planned 

Sublimely  in  the  thought's  simplicity. 

The  Lady,  throned  in  empyreal  state. 

Minds  only  the  young  Babe  upon  her  knee. 

While  sidelong  angels  bear  the  royal  weight 

Prostrated  meekly,  smiling  tenderly 

Oblivious  of  their  wings  ;  the  child  thereat 

Stretching  its  hand  like  God,    If  any  should, 

Because  of  some  stiff  draperies  and  loose  joints 

Gaze  scorn  down  from  the  heights  of  Raphaelhood 

On  Cimabue's  picture,  Heaven  annoints 

The  head  of  no  such  critic  and  his  blood 

The  poet's  curse  strikes  full  on,  and  appoints 

To  ague  and  cold  spasms  forevermore. 

A  noble  picture  !  worthy  of  the  shout 

Wherewith  along  the  streets  the  people  bore 

Its  cherub  faces,  which  the  sun  threw  out' 

Until  they  stopped,  and  entered  the  church  door 

Yet  rightly  was  young  Giotto  talked  about, 

Whom  Cimabue  found  among  the  sheep, 

And  knew,  as  gods  know  gods,  and  carried  home 

To  paint  the  things  he  had  painted,  with  a  deep 

And  fuller  insight,  and  so  overcome 

His  Chapel-Lady,  with  a  heavenlier  sweep 

Of  light ;  for  thus  we  mount  into  the  sum 

Of  great  things  known  or  acted.    I  hold,  too. 

That  Cimabue  smiled  upon  the  lad 

At  the  first  stroke  which  passed  what  he  could  do. 

Or  else  his  Virgin's  smile  had  never  had 

Such  sweetness  in  it.   All  great  men  who  foreknew 

Their  heirs  in  art,  for  art's  sake  have  been  glad, 

And  bent  their  old  white  heads  as  if  uncrowned. 

Fanatics  of  their  pure  ideals  still 

Far  more  than  of  their  triumphs,  which  were  found 

With  some  less  vehement  struggle  of  the  will." 

******** 

"  The  same  blue  waters  where  the  dolphins  swim 
Suggest  the  tritons.  Through  the  blue  immense 
Strike  out,  all  swimmers  !  cling  not  in  the  way 


Mrs.  Brownmg' s  Defence  of  West  i 


Of  one  another,  so  to  sink,  but  learn 
The  strong  man's  impulse,  catch  the  freshening  spray 
He  threw  up  in  his  motions,  and  discern 
By  his  clear  westering  eye,  the  time  of  day. 
Thou,  God,  hast  set  us  worthy  gifts  to  earn 
Besides  thy  Heaven  and  Thee  !  and  when  I  say 
There's  room  here  for  the  weakest  man  alive 
To  live  and  die,  there's  room,  too,  I  repeat 
For  all  the  strongest  to  live  well  and  strive 
Their  own  way  by  their  individual  heat. 
Like  some  new  bee-swarm  leaving  the  old  hive 
Despite  the  wax  which  tempts  so  violet-sweet. 
Then  let  the  living  live,  the  dead  retain 
Their  grave-cold  flowers  !    Though  honor's  best  supplied 
By  bringing  actions  to  prove  theirs  not  vain," 


IMPORTANT  DATES  IN  WEST'S  I.IFE. 


1738 — West  was  born. 

1744 — Produces  his  first  sketch. 

1754 — Invents  the  camera  obscura. 

1756 — Goes  with  Anthony  Wayne  to  fight 

Indians. 
1760 — Visits  Italy. 
1763 — Arrives  in  England. 
1765 — Marries  Elizabeth  Shewell 
1768 — Helps  to  found  the  Royal  Academy  ot 

Art. 

1792 — Succeeds  Reynolds  as  President  of  Royal 
Academy. 

1792 — Refuses  the  honor  of  knighthood  offered 

by  the  King. 
181 1 — Teaches  art  to  Samuel  Morse. 
1 817 — His  wife  dies. 
1820 — West  dies. 

1820 — Buried  in  St.  Pauls'  Cathedral. 


GETTY  RESEARCH  INSTITUTE 


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